Saturday, May 26, 2012

Paper Airplane Record?


A young fellow I know a little named Stephen Kreiger held the world record for the longest paper airplane throw since 2003.  His record was 207 feet, 4 inches.  But his record was recently broken.  Or was it? 

A generic picture of a paper airplane 

The new record was set by John Collins at 226 feet and 10 inches.  But he didn’t throw it himself.  He brought in a former UC Berkeley quarterback to throw.  It was this former quarterback who actually broke the record. 

Traditionally, this has been an individual sport, with the person designing the paper airplane also throwing it.  Stephen backs this view, along with many others.  But different voices say allowing a ringer to throw will include geniuses in design who have wimpy arms. 

I like the traditional view.  Certainly, by allowing quarterbacks in to muscle the paper airplanes will result in longer distances, but that’s only if distance is what matters, instead of seeing who is best at a traditional sport.  I suppose in the future, an engineer can design it, an origami expert can fold it, a coach can position it in the quarterback’s hand correctly, and then the QB can let fly. 

Or, Guinness World Records can have two categories:  One for individual paper airplane throwing, the other for a team sport.  This would be kind of like how the Oscars have one award for best original screenplay, and one for a screenplay based on an already-written work.  Any comments?  

3 comments:

  1. I like the individual and team sport categories. It kind of surprises me that the quarterback did so well. I've always thought of flying paper airplanes for distance more in terms of technique, not power. When I picture a quarterback whipping a paper airplane like a football, I would almost think it was crash early from too much force. But I stand corrected :)

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  2. Not to mention that the new so called record probably used illegal/special paper that was probably too heavy. And the plane was never verified....

    Did Guinness ever confirm this as a new record?

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  3. "Guinness in March named him [the QB] and Mr. Collins the record holders."

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303879604577408194095860860.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop

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