Know when to fold ‘em

The Louisiana Tech aviation program has seen many planes come through its Flight Operation Hangar, but a new kind of aircraft descended upon the facility Tuesday afternoon.

Tech hosted one of nearly 500 “Qualiflyer” events in the Red Bull Paper Wings paper airplane flight competition.

The international competition, spanning 62 countries, tasks participants with constructing a paper plane and throwing it as far or with as much airtime as possible.

“We all threw paper airplanes when we were kids,” competitor Jose Bejarano said. “It’s fun to play around and be kids again.”

Bejarano went on to record the longest paper airplane flight of the event at 81 feet, while Donnie Simoneaux captured the airtime crown with a time of 5.49 seconds.

Both will move on to the national round at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the winners there will compete for the world championship in Salzburg, Austria at Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz’s famous Hangar-7.

In total, 45 Tech students and other competitors turned out to the “Qualiflyer” event to test their prowess in building and launching the lightweight aircraft.

Also on hand was Red Bull aerobatic pilot and professional air racer Kevin Coleman, a Louisiana Tech graduate who helps Red Bull promote the aviation industry around the world through his dazzling flying.

“It’s awesome to be back here,” Coleman said. “There are Paper Wings contests going on in more than 60 countries around the world. I was super excited to see Louisiana Tech on the schedule this year.”

Coleman, a Coushatta native, is the only American pilot on the Air Race World Championship circuit, the world’s fastest motorsport.

“It’s a big honor for me, getting to represent north Louisiana, the United States and Louisiana Tech on the world stage. It’s something I cherish very much.”

Look for a feature on Coleman in a future edition of the Leader.

As Coleman chatted with aviation students, competitors trickled in throughout the afternoon, and the Tech hangar was filled with practice flights as participants prepared to launch their official attempts.

“I started off with my very basic design, which didn’t fly at all,” Bejarano said. “So a bit of research helped me develop (another design), which is working out pretty well. I’ll refine it a little bit and do my competition run with it.”

He said he heard about the event that very morning and, though he’s not a Tech student, decided it was worth the trip.

“I thought it was pretty awesome that they were giving out free pizza and letting us throw paper airplanes,” he said.

Though the distance and airtime competitions are over in Ruston, an aerobatics competition is ongoing, taking place online via TikTok submissions.

Pilots can show off their most artistic paper airplane flight patterns by using #redbullpaperwings #USA and tagging @redbull in a post with their video submission.