GLAD WINNERS FLY TO VICTORY AT RED BULL FLUGTAG IN HYDE PARK

Saturday 7th June - Team Glad Winners, from Southampton, flew to first place in the Red Bull Flugtag in London’s Hyde Park today, topping the leaderboard with a whopping 57 points. 80,000 excited spectators watched the home-made, 60kg ‘CG1’ machine, constructed from wood and fibreglass, fly over 17.5 metres to victory, piloted by Tom Bryer.

FLIGHT WINNERS... BY SOME DISTANCE!

The Cullinan Bird, designed and built by a team of engineers and architects from London wowed the crowd with the longest flight of the day, soaring for over 39m before landing in the Serpentine.

But the Red Bull Flugtag competition isn’t all about distance and the Cullinan Bird team failed to impress the judges with their pre-flight performance, resulting in a 5th place finish.

Second place in the crazy, flying extravaganza was taken by the Flying Aquanauts’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ with 56 points. Third place with 55 points was taken by Dragon’s Tale, built by a team from Wales.

The competition was judged on distance flown and level of creativity. Points were also awarded for the entertainment value of the pre-flight performance by the celebrity judging panel which included Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel-Horwood, BBC Fame Academy’s Carrie Grant and model Jodie Kidd.

Highlights from the Red Bull Flugtag 2008 will be broadcast on ITV4 on Sunday 15th June at 5.30pm and ITV1late on Monday 23rd June at 12.15am (technically Tuesday morning.)

For more details visit www.redbullflugtag.co.uk

RED BULL FLUGTAG... WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

At the beginning of this year, the Red Bull Flugtag team ran a nationwide advertising campaign seeking crazy showmen and Jackass wannabes with a desire to build a man-powered flying machine that could soar off a 6m high ramp. Hundreds sent their designs in but only the 41 best entrants earned themselves a pilot’s licence for the event.

On June 7th, these crazy teams headed for the ramp where they were judged on three criteria: the distance their machine flies, the creativity of the machine and the team’s pre-flight performance.