Italian pilot and stuntman Dario Costa did something, what seemed incredible yesterday. He flew by plane through two Catalca road tunnels near Istanbul. Their length is 2 km 260 m. The plane flight took 43,44 seconds. Costa was at the helm of a single-engine aircraft, specially prepared for this amazing experiment.
Costa's plane flew at the height of all 70 centimeters above the asphalt, while the pilot observed the required distance from the walls of the tunnel.
clear, that flying through the tunnel is fraught with mortal danger: at any time the plane could come into contact with either the walls of the tunnel, either with the ground.
As the American author Tyler Rogoway writes, Costa flew into the tunnel early in the morning, moreover, the morning sun created optimal conditions for performing a difficult task. The highest response was required from the pilot. But not without a critical moment: the plane flew through a 360-meter section between the tunnels, hit by a crosswind. Nevertheless, Kostya managed to fly into the second narrow tunnel.
It seemed, everything happens so fast, but when i got out of the first tunnel, the plane began to move to the right due to a crosswind, and in my head at this moment everything slowed down. I reacted and just focused on, to get the plane back on track, to enter another tunnel. Then, in my imagination, everything sped up again,
– later recalled the stuntman himself.
Dario Costa set four world records for the Guinness book at once: first flight of an aircraft through a tunnel, the first flight of the aircraft through two tunnels, the first flight of the aircraft from the tunnel and the longest tunnel, passed by high-speed manned aircraft.
Record frames:
Author:Ilya Polonsky
