Red Bull Flugtag: Some History
Being a part of Vancouver’s (and Canada’s) first Red Bull Flugtag event led Team Sushi Gone Wild to think about the history of which we will soon be a part.
Red Bull was created by Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz in 1987. To market the energy drink, the company went down an ‘untraditional’ route by sponsoring extreme sporting events aimed at youth. Sporting event sponsorships include motorsport, air racing, and of course, Flugtag.
The first Flugtag event took place in 1991 in Austria. Since then, many cities around the world have hosted Flugtag events, including London, Antwerp, Berlin and Johannesburg. It was only until 2002 when Flugtag landed in the United States in San Francisco. Vancouver is definitely ready to host Flugtag on August 19, 2006!
Sources:
The Soda With Buzz (Forbes.com; 03.28.05)
Red Bull Wikipedia entry
Flugtag Wikipedia entry
Hammer…meet cardboard
It was such a relief to finally touch something other than cardboard and duct tape. We got to use nails and wood! It sounds lame, but knocking a nail senseless into a chunk of wood with a hammer made this project finally seem real. And hammers are more fun than duct tape, too!
Putting some structure under the sushi.
Flugtag Rules & Judging Criteria
*yawn*
Just kidding – rules are important in every contest. Plus, it gives you, the home viewer, insight into what all the teams have to consider before building. It’s not like we just grab a hammer and go.
RULES
The flying machines must be:
- Human powered
- Less than 9m wide
- Less than 200kg including the pilot
“That’s it?” you say? Well…try building something large but light. AND try thinking of a way to transport it. Transportation is a HUGE issue.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Teams will be judged according to:
- Distance
- Creativity
- Showmanship
“WHAT?” you say? It’s not all about distance in a flying competition? Nope – it’s about entertainment, baby! Or else Team Sushi Gone Wild wouldn’t have any business trying to get a giant sushi to fly a long distance…
For the full rules and criteria, visit the official Flugtag Vancouver site.
Why Sushi?
Since Vancouver is hosting Canada’s first Flugtag, Team Sushi Gone Wild wanted our aircraft to represent what Vancouver is all about. We thought about doing a theme on snowboarding, trees, real estate, hockey, dim sum, or sushi.
We wondered if we should build…
- a mountain and have a snowboarder fly off into False Creek
- a forest and launch a bear from the treetops
- a condo and tip it over
- a giant hockey stick and puck (but who wants to think about hockey in August…especially after the Canucks’ lackluster season)
- a big bamboo steamer of dumplings
- a huge piece of sushi and chopsticks
It came down to a debate between dim sum or sushi – food was definitely on our minds. In the end, sushi won; it’s more colourful than dumplings and Vancouver is known for having many, many, many sushi restaurants.
Which do you think is more photogenic?
