Leave it to Red Bull to do the seemingly impossible. Italian Red Bull athlete Dario Costa recently became the first person to land his race aircraft on a moving cargo train before lifting off again in a vertical pull from the same container.
Costa was forced to execute a blind landing on a 2.5km (~1.5 miles) track in heavy turbulence, putting down the plane with only a few centimeters of room for error. The stunt was pulled off in Afyonkarahisar, Türkiye, on February 15th, with just a 50 second window to land and take off.
“Train Landing was one of the most challenging and demanding projects of my career. There were so many variables to measure, but the greatest test was learning to land blind on a very small moving runway – relying only on cognitive and flying skills.
Despite the difficulty, it was a great experience. For the first time, an aircraft successfully interacted with a moving train, bringing together the oldest motorised transportation with the newest. It was a complex project that required precision, teamwork, and trust – and I’m proud we executed it as planned.” – Dario Costa
The pilot was forced to reduce the aircraft to a near-stall airspeed of 47 knots, or 87km/h, to match the train traveling at its max operation speed of 65 knots, or 120km/h. After landing, Costa conducted a controlled acceleration and lift-off into an immediate vertical climb from the same container, completing the world-first sequence.
Congrats to Costa and the whole Red Bull crew on this incredible stunt.
