World Distance Record Shattered With A Flight Of 258 Feet In Long Beach, CA

Taking off in Washington, D.C. and landing in Long Beach, CA, with layovers in Miami, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, National Red Bull Flugtag, the homemade flying craft competition, made history Saturday by taking place in five cities in one day. Adding to the already-extraordinary day, the The Chicken Whisperers, a team of aerospace and mechanical engineers from Palo Alto, CA, proved that chickens can indeed fly, soaring a staggering 258 feet and shattering the old world record, set in Germany in 2012, by 29 feet.

"I was lucky to catch a nice wind after takeoff and I was able to steer the craft, using grip-controlled rudders in the back of the structure, to go even further," said The Chicken Whisperers' pilot, Laura Shane.

As an event taking place for 12 years worldwide, never before has one country taken on the challenge of putting on five Red Bull Flugtags on one day. The feat was accomplished today as more than 366,000 spectators celebrated the last day of summer and packed the shores of five of America's most iconic cities making Red Bull Flugtag truly a national day for people to get with friends, build their own flying machines and take to the skies.

Red Bull Flugtag ... "flying day" in German ... is a competition that dares both the brave and brainy to design, build and pilot homemade flying machines off a 30-foot-high "flight deck" in front of tens of thousands of spectators. No ordinary flying competition, teams are not only judged on distance but also creativity and showmanship making the event equal parts inventive, inspiring, hilarious and all-around wacky.

More than 750 aspiring aviators composing more than 150 teams across the country took on the challenge with crafts that only their imaginations could dream up. The spectators saw an incredibly varied cast of characters perform atop the five flight decks before taking off with (oftentimes far-fetched) aspirations of flight, including lumberjacks from Vermont, dragon riders from Fort Lauderdale, firemen from Skokie, bullfighters from Fort Worth, pirates from California, and even unicorn hunters from Virginia. 

(Image provided by Red Bull)

FMI: www.redbullflugtagusa.com