One hundred homemade aircraft. One pier. And not nearly enough of them ready for what comes next. Red Bull Flugtag gathered teams from Switzerland, Germany, Japan, the USA, Bulgaria, Spain, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Turkey, Hong Kong, Canada, Slovenia, Kuwait, and Italy, all convinced their handcrafted contraption was the one that would finally defy gravity. Most of them were wrong in spectacular fashion. A few were gloriously, unexpectedly right.
The ones who actually flew
The hang glider design proved itself early and often. The German team Slingshot Pilots were among the first to demonstrate why: their aerodynamic build hit the correct weight distribution, carried speed off the pier, and drew a roar from the crowd that set the standard for every team that followed. Frequent Flyers from Germany repeated the trick, their craft staying aloft long enough to go the distance while the crowd erupted again. The commentator put it plainly watching them: ‘the hang glider effect, similar design, and it pays off.’
A few other teams earned their applause the hard way. I Dream of Janine from the USA produced one of the afternoon’s most memorable moments: the pilot hung on through the full arc of the descent, lifted his feet at the last second, and squeezed out extra distance by sheer stubbornness. The Flying Dutchman, representing Switzerland despite the name, sent their pilot over the water in a configuration where he rode on top of the wings rather than underneath them, which was unusual enough to be its own kind of triumph. Red Baron and Snoopy from New Zealand used the hang glider effect to cover real ground before splashing down. Three Four Fly from Hong Kong balanced a ballast system well enough to score high marks from the judges. DC-3 from New Zealand covered reasonable distance and floated, prompting the announcer to deadpan: ‘ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking.’
Tentacle Titans from South Africa got lift. Fly So Far from South Africa managed liftoff too, sending the craft forward while the team dropped into the water beneath it. The Cardinals from Kuwait drew wild applause from the sidelines by covering solid distance, held back only by the trolley pulling down on the rear wing at the critical moment.
The spectacular, beautiful failures
For every team that flew, a dozen more provided the comedy the event runs on. The Italian team known as I’m a Mama Catcher arrived with a catapult configuration, three team members pulling the craft down to shoot the pilot out the front end like a human cannonball. Nobody could catch them. Baby Truck from the USA, fashioned after a New Holland farming machine, managed to go backwards off the pier. Go Go Japan lost its wings before the pilot even left the structure, leaving the commentator to observe: ‘last time I checked, the pilot was supposed to be under the wings, not the other way around.’
Ultra Glider from Switzerland produced the afternoon’s most surreal moment: the pilot left the craft entirely before it launched, barreling into the water ahead of it, while one remaining team member stood alone on the pier and, by all accounts, decided he was staying exactly where he was. Sumo Wrestlers from Japan sent the craft one direction and the people another, with the pilot ejecting out the front door and the commentator noting: ‘I think the pilot covered more ground.’ The Bavarian Boys from the USA had their hang glider stay attached to the trolley all the way down, technically never given a chance to fly at all, yet still collected a series of nines and tens from the judges.
Max Fly from Spain arrived as, in the announcer’s words, ‘basically a bed,’ with wings attached to the bed frame itself. Sushi Roll from Turkey had no wings at all. Baby Airlines from Spain broke in the middle before reaching the water. Right to Party from the USA snapped clean in half on impact.
The craft that made it this far
A straw-and-wood build from Team Debauch of Italy, described as taking a ‘wicker man approach,’ surprised everyone by covering more distance than its materials suggested was possible. Bananarama from Switzerland peeled off the edge of the pier and covered a little bit of ground, the rest of the team jumping in behind them. The Buffoons from the USA, the commentator noted, were ‘far from buffoonery’: creativity, bravery, and commitment were the real criteria on display.
Flying Sweet Corn from Hong Kong earned a series of nines on design alone despite going nose-first into the water. Coconut Pirates from the USA collected nines and a ten, with specific crowd appreciation reserved for the team member in the rooster suit.
Of the 100 teams that rolled to the edge of that pier, very few cleared any meaningful distance. Most found the water immediately. A handful made it memorable for all the right reasons, and the rest made it memorable anyway.
