As if being the oldest pilot in the Red Bull Air Race series (he’s 57) isn’t enough adrenaline for him, Hungarian pilot Peter Besenyei is still looking for flying challenges and he found one in the Corinth Canal in Greece. Besenyei flew the length of the four-mile long canal, which is less than three times wider than the wingspan of his Edge 540 race plane. For good measure he did a loop over top of a bridge spanning the channel and flew under it on the recovery. He told Euronews the flight was a “dream come true,” which is noteworthy for a pilot with his logbook.
Besenyei is a national hero in his home country and was one of the architects of the Red Bull Air Races, which returned this year after a three-year hiatus. Besenyei won the first Red Bull race in 2003 and is also a three-time world aerobatic champion. But he’s probably most famous for flying inverted under the Chain Bridge over the Danube River in Budapest, much to the delight of the people watching from on, under and beside the bridge.
