Team Ground Control Outflies 35 Teams in Handmade Flying Craft Contest over the Cumberland River

60,000 spectators watch Red Bull Flugtag’s return to Nashville for 10-year anniversary

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Amateur teams from across the Southeast piloted homemade flying machines into the Cumberland River during Red Bull Flugtag’s return to Music City.

Team Ground Control beat out 35 other crafty competitors by flying a human-powered machine—appropriately resembling an airplane—through the sky for an impressive 81 feet from the 25-foot-high flight deck. Team Smashville of the Nashville Predators snagged the People’s Choice Award, a coveted prize awarded by fans throughout the event weekend and on site via social media.

                Final Team Rankings:

1.            Ground Control

2.            His Majesties Royal Circus and the Flying Irish Woman

3.            YMCA

The People’s Choice Award went to Team Smashville

Among the unique spectacles spotted soaring in front of the Nashville skyline were a Dolly Parton effigy, grown men in diapers, and the aptly named “Woo Hoo” team, a pedal tavern full of inflatable bachelorettes.

Thirty-six teams from Nashville and surrounding areas put months of thought, planning, design, and muscle into their crafts, costumes and skits. Distance wasn’t the only measure in which the participants were judged. Creativity and showmanship were also considered, with each team performing a choreographed skit to their choice of song before launching their craft off the flight deck in hopes of flying over the Cumberland. 

Red Bull Flugtag (“Flying Day” in German) has been taking place in different cities all over the world since 1992. An over-the-top and often hilarious event, Red Bull Flugtag combines teamwork, creativity, and the love of flight and fun to produce an occasion to be remembered.

Photo credit: Matt Shaw, Red Bull

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