TÖKÖL, Hungary - Two countries, two national heroes. For both, earth is too confined a space and extreme flying machines are their passion. Red Bull Air Race pilot Peter Besenyei from Hungary met Slovakia’s first ever astronaut Ivan Bella at Tököl Airport to take him for a flight in his race plane. Bella who, as a cosmonaut, is familiar with G-force was looking forward to experiencing it in a different type of plane than he is normally accustomed to. Unfortunately bad weather – strong winds, low cloud level and heavy rainfall – meant that the pilots stayed grounded and instead spent the day comparing notes on flying.
Besenyei, Hungary’s most renowned pilot has been competing in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship since its inception, and was instrumental in helping to develop the sport with Red Bull. Ivan Bella is a former colonel of the general staff in the Slovakian army who handled the wildest fighter airplane the MIG-21 and went through the toughest training in the world, so that he could look at the planet Earth from the universe.
“It was a huge pleasure to meet such a great person,” said Ivan Bella after the informal meeting with Besenyei. “We have a lot in common and I would love to fly with him next time. For sure, I will visit the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Budapest next year as I want to see Peter in action.”
“It was great to meet Ivan and I have high respect for him. It’s a pity that I could not take him on a flight due to the weather conditions. However, he promised to come back next year so we will definitely secure some time to arrange this!”
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