Defying Gravity

Those daring young men (and women) in their flying machine, took to the skies, and the water, during Saturday’s Red Bull Flugtag.

One of the teams, Cincinnati Fear, made a valiant effort off the launch ramp before a stunning nose-dive into the Ohio that made its way into Red Bull’s highlight reel of the event. Their flying machine, created by MSA Design, still took the pilot on flight of almost 40 feet!

Over 30 teams made the leap, with judges Jessica Dimon, Nick Goepper, Chad Johnson, Chloe Pavlech, and Cale Saurage scoring participants on the showmanship of their pre-flight dance performances as well as their final descents. Nearly 30,000 people watched the proceedings from the Serpentine Wall and nearby bridges for Flugtag’s only U.S. stop of the year.

The final results were

• First Place: Flite Test (Minerva, Ohio)

• Second Place: Living Lost Land and Waters (East Moline, IL)

• Third Place: The Neanderthals (Phoenix, AZ)

• People’s Choice, presented by T-Mobile: Thunderdome (Cincinnati, OH)

• Longest Flight, presented by CVG International Airport: The Smoke Eaters (Ripon, WI) with a distance of 54 feet