On paper wings

Carefully folding their hopes, students prepared to launch them into the air on paper wings for a chance to win a free trip to Austria. The Red Bull Paper Wings contest – a fly off between paper airplanes – offered them that chance in the HUB last Thursday. A total of 58 people competed in two contests: one that measured distance, and another that measured hang time. Competitors approached each contest differently – sleek, dart-like jets dominated the distance competition, while snub-nosed, broad-winged gliders stayed in the air longer. Some unfortunate flights didn’t even make it off the starting mat; a tragic crash and burn. Others went a little wayward; one bounced into the wall above where Chris Dalton was registering new challengers and would hit him in the forehead if he hadn’t ducked. First-year student Pat Snow was the man to beat in the distance competition. Conor Lynch, a friend of Snow, said he was entering, “Because I want to beat Pat Snow.” Snow’s roommate, first-year student Ryan Wobrock was there to try to defeat him as well. Snow acted confidently, though. He smiled and replied, “They don’t stand a chance.” He backed up his boast, too; his plane soared to an impressive distance of 84.3 feet. After seeing the flight, Lynch was no longer happy about his chances. “Slim just left town,” he said. Snow’s plane claimed ultimate victory in the distance competition – although some planes approached his milestone. Chris Trapp won the hang time competition after his plane remained aloft for 4.18 seconds, soundly beating many of his challengers. Trapp and Snow each won a case of Red Bull and some posters. The results of this competition will be compared to other competitors’ final scores on the east coast. If their scores are the highest in the east, they will win a trip to the west coast to compete in the nationals. The victors of the nationals will then have an opportunity to compete for the world championship in Austria.