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IF YOU CAN BUILD IT, YOU CAN FLY IT – RED BULL FLUGTAG IS COMING TO SOUTH AFRICA!
The world’s most famous flying machine competition, Red Bull Flugtag, returns to South Africa after a ten year hiatus and makes its way to Cape Town’s V& A Waterfront on the 9th of December 2012.
Teams are challenged to build homemade, human-powered flying machines and pilot them off a 6m high ramp in the hopes of achieving flight. Flugtag may mean “flight day” in German, but all these crafts ultimately splash into the waters below. They are judged not only on their flight’s distance, but creativity as well.
Red Bull Flugtag is a firm favourite internationally with over 100 versions of the event having taken place since the first in Austria in 1992.
Spectators are treated to the pilots and crews hilarious pre-flight antics, elaborate flying machines, cringe-worthy attempts at the longest flight record and subsequent plummets into the wavy waters below.
The event was last staged in South Africa ten years ago in Benoni in 2002 where 55,000 spectators flocked to Homestead Lake to see 40 crews pull out all the stops to take top honours on the day.
This year 50 crews, from various backgrounds and regions, will be chosen from the application process to take part in the event.
The Red Bull Flugtag festivities will happen right in front of the V & A Waterfront’s Jetty 1 – a location chosen as it lends itself to great viewing for spectators with the striking backdrop of Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain.
Eager flying fundis are encouraged to channel their inner Amelia Earhart or Wright Brother and glide over to www.redbullflugtag.co.za for more information on how to enter.
Competitors take off at the most recent Red Bull Flugtag in Milano, Italy, on June 10th, 2012.
Damiano Levati/Red Bull Content Pool
Follow Red Bull Flugtag:
Twitter: @RedBullZA (#RedBullFlugtag)
