After being awarded the world’s best aerobatic player in the Red Bull Paper Wings global super final in Salzburg, Austria, on May 14, Seunghoon Lee knelt down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend.
Using a gold paper plane, the science teacher proposed to his girlfriend in front of the whole audience, who joyfully accepted.
For his aerobatics act, Mr. Lee had 60 seconds to impress three judges, including Italian aviation legend Dario Costa, whose world record-breaking “Tunnel Pass” flight went viral last year. Mr. Costa was one of three judges.
For seven years now I’ve been using paper aircraft as a teaching tool in Korea, where I work as an elementary school science teacher,” Mr Lee remarked after the event.
“Today I was able to perform and show that I can be the world’s greatest aerobatic player.
“I’ve been practising my presentation for one year. I asked my girlfriend to come to the world final with me, and this morning I told her that if I won, I would propose to her, so it all worked out.”
A total of more than 61,000 aspirants from 60 nations competed in more than 500 qualifying events before the sixth global final at Hangar-7 in Salzburg on May 28.
The greatest aerodynamic designs and methods for paper aircraft were challenged in three categories: longest distance, longest airtime, and aerobatics.
Yicheng Sun, 32, of the United Kingdom, competed in the greatest distance category and finished second with a paper aircraft he hurled 57.07 meters in the air.
An aeronautical vehicle design researcher at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, Mr Sun overcame 60 rivals from 58 nations in the finals of an international competition.
I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” Mr Sun said to the PA news agency.
“When the competition starts, it’s really tough but I decided to take a risk and I ended up with (the silver trophy).”