SEOUL — Forget expensive gadgets and high-tech aircraft—Seoul is getting ready to turn ordinary sheets of paper into flying machines as registration opens for the 2026 Hangang Paper Airplane Festival.
The annual event returns to Yeouido Hangang Park on Oct. 10, where children, teenagers and adults will compete to see whose handmade paper airplane can fly the farthest or stay airborne the longest.
Seoul will accept applications for 700 competitors starting Sept. 19 at 10 a.m., with spots available on a first-come, first-served basis.
700 Spots, Two Ways to Become Champion
The 2026 competition will feature two main events:
- Longest Distance: 500 competitors
- Longest Flight Time: 200 competitors
Both events will have qualifying and final rounds.
The distance competition is divided into preschool, lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle/high school-general categories.
The flight-time competition includes lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle/high school-general divisions.
The structure means the competition isn’t simply about throwing a paper plane as hard as possible. Competitors must fold their aircraft themselves and then use technique, design and throwing control to maximize either distance or airtime.
No Glue, No Tape—Just One Sheet of Paper
The rules keep the competition remarkably simple.
Participants receive the official competition paper at the venue and may use only one sheet. There are no restrictions on the airplane’s basic design or wingspan, but competitors cannot use tape, glue, scissors or other tools.
In the distance event, the plane’s final stopping point determines the result.
For the flight-time competition, officials measure the period from when the airplane leaves the participant’s hand until it hits the ground, a person or another object, or disappears from view.
Each competitor receives one opportunity in the competition rounds, making the folding and launch decisions particularly important.
The Event Has Been Flying Since 2009
The Hangang Paper Airplane Festival has been held in Yeouido since 2009, except in 2020 and 2021 when it was not held because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s event marks the 16th Hangang Paper Airplane Competition.
Seoul says advance registration has historically filled extremely quickly, with applications in previous years closing within roughly a minute of opening.
That popularity has prompted organizers to introduce something new in 2026: on-site event competitions that people can join without advance registration.
However, those activities are separate from the main championship. The official competition itself requires advance registration, and there will be no same-day registration for the two championship events.
49 Winners Will Be Recognized
The championship will award prizes to 49 competitors under the published award structure.
Category winners will receive Seoul Metropolitan Government awards, while additional medal winners will receive awards from the city’s Future Hangang Headquarters.
Champions will also receive trophies, while gold, silver and bronze winners will receive medals.
Why Yeouido Is the Perfect Runway
The choice of Yeouido carries a little aviation history of its own.
The area is associated with the history of Korea’s early aviation and was home to the country’s first civilian airfield.
That history gives the paper-airplane competition an unusual setting: participants will be launching tiny handmade aircraft in a place once connected to the beginnings of aviation in Korea.
More Than a Paper Airplane Contest
The Oct. 10 festival is not limited to the championship.
Seoul’s official programme includes lectures, performances and hands-on activities, allowing visitors who did not secure one of the 700 competition places to participate in other parts of the event.
The festival is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Yeouido Hangang Park’s Nok-eum Square, and general festival activities are free.
That gives the event a broader appeal than a conventional competition. Families can watch the championship, take part in activities and enjoy the riverside festival even if they did not register as competitors.
A Simple Contest With Serious Competition
Paper airplanes may look like a childhood pastime, but competitive paper-airplane flying involves principles of aerodynamics, balance, lift, drag and launch technique.
Even small changes in a fold can influence how an airplane behaves in the air.
Seoul has also promoted educational paper-airplane programmes elsewhere in the city, including activities introducing children to basic aerodynamics through folding and flight experiments.
The Hangang competition turns those ideas into a public event—without requiring expensive equipment.
Registration Opens Sept. 19
For aspiring competitors, the important date is Sept. 19, 2026, at 10 a.m.
The 700 championship places will be distributed through online first-come, first-served registration.
Because the main competition has limited capacity and historically attracted rapid sign-ups, Seoul is also providing the new on-site event competitions for people who miss the advance-registration window.
The 2026 Hangang Paper Airplane Festival will then take over Yeouido on Oct. 10, turning a riverside park into an unusual runway where the winning aircraft won’t be made of metal or powered by engines.
They’ll be made of paper—and the next Hangang champion will have to make theirs fly farther or longer than everyone else’s.
