AfriPulse
Red Bull’s stunt pilot and aerobatic performer, Dario Costa, on 15 February 2026 became the first pilot in aviation history to land a plane on a moving train before taking off again.
The world-first feat, which took place on a 2.5 km railway track in Afyonkarahisar in Türkiye, required Costa to approach a moving train container at near-stall speed – just 87 km/h.
During the daring feat, Costa touched down on the ninth and final container of a cargo train travelling at its maximum operational speed of 120kph after reducing his plane to a near-stall airspeed of 87 km/h.
To prepare, Costa worked with Rimac on a three-day test program at Pula Airport in Croatia, where $2.7 million Rimac Nevera R and the Nevera hypercars were used to give Costa a real, moving, high-speed reference point.
“At speeds directly comparable to those required during the actual landing approach, the hypercars allowed Costa to train speed synchronization, alignment judgement and reaction timing,” Rimac said.
While the standard Nevera with 1,914-horsepower can reach a top speed of 412 km/h (256 mph), the 2,107-hp Nevera R topped out at 431.45 km/h (268.2 mph) – making it one of the fastest production vehicle.
“Red Bull and Rimac share the same spirit of pushing boundaries and exploring the impossible. This project was another bold idea born from that shared mindset, and a chance to do something truly unprecedented,” said Roni Kert, the Head of Sales and Marketing at Bugatti Rimac.
In addition to providing Nevera hypercars, Rimac also produced a fully custom-fitted aircraft seat molded precisely to Costa’s body shape and calibrated to his performance requirements : maximum stability, optimal control feedback, and reduced fatigue during extreme maneuvers.
“…. the seat represents a meaningful engineering contribution, and, as far as is known, the first application of this level of precision seat engineering in a race aircraft,” Rimac added.
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Source: AutoJosh | Read the Full Story…
