Péter Besenyei

Péter Besenyei is a Hungarian aerobatics pilot and world champion air racer, born on 8 June 1956 in Körmend. Inspired as a child by watching the 1962 World Aerobatic Championships, he first flew a glider at fifteen and entered his first flying competition in 1976. He won his first gold medal at the 1982 Austrian National Championships, specialised in freestyle aerobatics, and invented several original snap rolls as well as the knife-edge spin in 1984. In 1995 he won two gold and two silver medals and was named the most successful aerobatics pilot of his time. In 2001 he flew upside down under the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest, a maneuver that became a standard in air races. Besenyei is sometimes called the godfather of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship because he helped Red Bull develop its rules and select its pilots, and he retired from the series after the 2015 season. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the President of the Republic of Hungary in 1996 and works as a test pilot and aerobatics instructor.