RED BULL FLUGTAG 2013

In 2008, Red Bull held their annual Flugtag flying competition in Chicago. Within 10 minutes of watching in the audience I knew I wanted to do that one day. Fast forward a few years and it was announced the event would be returning. Along with some friends from a local Maker group, we secured one of the 30 available team spots.

We found a neighborhood bar willing to let us build an airplane in their garage for 6 weeks, gathered materials, and Google’d “how to build an airplane”. After much trial-and-error and amateur aeronautic engineering, the result was a homemade ultra-light glider with a 20 ft wingspan. Our theme was a throwback to our younger Nintendo days and was decorated as a pixelated duck from the iconic '80s game. We took home First Place in Chicago with longest flight and best voting by the judges. Afterwards we got a sweet trophy as well as featured on the front page of Reddit when I shared it in the /r/DIY community.