Dawn had just broke on Saturday (04 Sept) most of Europe was still on their bed, while 41-year-old Dario Costa, a professional race and stunt pilot fired up his specially modified Zivko Edge 540 race plane inside one of the dual Çatalca Tunnels on Turkey’s Northern Marmara Highway and flew through the two tunnels becoming the first person on Earth to do so.
The flight – which began in the shorter Çatalca-2 tunnel then emerged into the open air before again plunging into the longer 1,638m (5,374ft) Çatalca-1 section – covered 2.26km in total (1.4 miles) and lasted for 43.44 seconds.
This epic flight was recognised with a Guinness World Record for Longest Tunnel Flown through with an Aeroplane (1,730m) and Costa was presented with the official certificate.
The four other notable records were: first aeroplane flight through a tunnel, longest flight under a solid obstacle, first aeroplane flight through two tunnels and first aeroplane takeoff from a tunnel.
© Nuri Yilmazer for Red Bull Content Pool
Source: Red Bull and News Agencies
