IT’S the ultimate office or classroom battle.

Who can make their paper plane fly the furthest?

Now students from the University of Southampton have joined the battle to be the best in the world.

The university staged one of the 12 UK qualifiers to find the cream of this country’s paper plane makers who will represent their country in Austria at the start of May.

More than 200 students descended on the students’ union to try their hand at finding the perfect design.

Organisers were looking for record-breakers in three disciplines: the longest distance, longest air-time and aerobatics.

The UK qualifiers are being held at 12 universities before the winners are flown to Salzburg for the world championships – the Red Bull Paper Wings Challenge.

Nick Karlsen, 19, studying aeronautics and astronautics, said: “My attempt was rather bad, to be honest, but it was a bit of fun and something a bit different to have a go at.

make your own winning paper plane

“My design was really random.

I didn’t put much thought into it, which is quite bad considering I’m an aerospace engineer.”

The longest flight of the day was recorded at 17 metres.

Ewan McCulloch, from Red Bull, said: “We’ve had some wacky designs, nimble planes, carefully crafted aerodynamic designs and some dreadful designs, too.”