HOPES soared as hundreds of planes took off only to crash seconds later in Japan’s 9th Annual Paper Airplane Competition Saturday.

　　Over 400 planemakers aged between 3 and 81 propelled featherweight constructions of all sizes, competing to see how long they could stay in flight at an indoor stadium in Nagoya.

　　The planes ranged from 20-cm paper darts, weighing just 5 g, to 0.9-m “jumbo jets,” said Sentaro Shiraki, spokesman for the Japan Paper Airplane Association.

　　Among the competitors at the Nagoya Dome was Leif Lindbergh, grandson of legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, Shiraki said.

　　Lindbergh and his family were invited to the 2002 competition to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the historic nonstop trans-Atlantic flight in “The Spirit of St. Louis.”  (SD-Agencies)