By William Midkiff
Spirits were high, and some carefully engineered paper airplanes soared even higher at Red Bull’s Paper Wings qualifier, held March 14 at Ruston’s Regional Airport.
This global competition, held annually by energy drink company Red Bull, invites people to bring out their inner engineer and create their own paper airplane design to compete in two categories – distance and airtime. Each qualifier picks two winners, one from each category, to send to the national championship. Winners of that will go on to compete globally.
The event held competitions for three hours, and at 5 p.m., the winners were announced. The airtime category was dominated by Tech’s own Donnie Simoneaux, and the distance category by Northern Arizona University graduate Jose Coronado. With their victories, both are invited to compete in the national Paper Wings championship, which will be held in Huntington, Alabama, on April 16.
Simoneaux attributes his victory to his interest in engineering.
“I like to engineer things and see how good I can make stuff,” Simoneaux said. “So I was like, ‘Shoot, I’ll go try it.’”
He also plans on perfecting his design and practicing more for the national competition.
“Only eight seconds is the time to beat,” Simoneaux said. “I feel like that’s very manageable.”
Coronado counts his success as a result of his childhood experience with paper airplanes, although admitted that he hasn’t practiced in a few years.
“Like most people, I grew up making various types of paper airplanes and flying them around during school recess or at home with my dad,” Coronado said. “I haven’t made paper airplanes in a long time, so I’m glad I was able to reconnect with my 10-year-old self and fly paper airplanes with a group of great people.”
He’ll begin preparation for nationals soon as well.
“The sooner I start preparing, the better chance I’ll have of winning once more,” Coronado said. “I think I’m going to do much more research on paper airplane design and throwing techniques in order to be well-prepared.”
Paper Wings was canceled in 2020 and 2021. This year, however, it’s back in full swing, with qualifiers in 62 countries and an international championship to take place in Salzburg, Austria.
The qualifier at Ruston Regional Airport, although cursed with some dreary weather, was a success, garnering lots of applicants with lots of planes to test. The folding stations stayed busy, and the DJ kept the festive music going the entire event. Utility Brewing also provided free pizza for the event.
One Louisiana Tech student who attended, Michael George, decided to go to relive some childhood nostalgia.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve actually enjoyed flying paper airplanes, and I thought it would be a fun event to go to with my friends,” George said.
One such friend, Louisiana Tech student Reno Johnson, shared a similar desire to attend.
“When I heard there was free pizza, I had to come,” Johnson said.
The fact that Louisiana Tech was chosen to host a Paper Wings event comes as no surprise, considering the school’s renowned aviation program. Red Bull reached out to Louisiana Tech’s Precision Flight Team weeks ago, with a request for the team to raise awareness of the event. Flight team president Russell Lewis shared at the event that they agreed to help Red Bull because Paper Wings shares a similar goal with the team.
“This is a great way to get people interested in aviation. That’s one of the main goals of the flight team – to do community outreach and get people interested in aviation,” Lewis said.
Cody Coker, also a member of the flight team, shared a similar view about aviation awareness.
“A lot of times, all you see of aviation is just airlines,” Coker said. “You don’t get to see the civilian side of it. A lot of people don’t realize how many different things there are in aviation.”
