Red Bull Flugtag challenges the brave and brainy to design, build and pilot homemade flying machines off a 30-foot high flight deck in hopes of soaring into the wild blue yonder...or often, plunging into the waters below. Flugtag, which means "flying day" in German, pushes the envelope of human-powered flight, but competitors need more than airtime to reach the podium. Teams are judged on three criteria: flight distance, creativity of the craft, and showmanship. This criteria has inspired flying tacos, prehistoric pterodactyls, winnebagos with wings and even Snoopy and the gang to grace the Flugtag flight decks! And after a year with no Red Bull Flugtag in the U.S., 2010 promises to be bigger and better than ever.
Since the first Red Bull Flugtag took place in Vienna, Austria, in 1991, more than 40 Flugtags have been held around the globe, attracting up to 300,000 spectators for a single event. The record for the farthest flight-to-date currently stands at 195 feet and was set at Red Bull Flugtag Austria in 2000. A new U.S. record was set in 2007 at Red Bull Flugtag Nashville when a flying banjo flew 155 feet!
