Flying objects to take over Bangalore skies

At Sankey Tank on Sunday, a Taj Mahal, Superman's chaddis and a crisp masala dosa will fly off a 22-ft-high platform into the water. Close on their heels, a penguin, a Batmobile, and a giant marijuana joint will plunge into the lake with a team of four aboard each of them. The flying objects aren't visiting for the weekend from another planet. They are homemade aircrafts, competing in the first Indian edition of the Red Bull Flugtag.
A global, arguably just as crazy, version of the 1960s Hanna Barbara cartoon series Wacky Races, the Flugtag event has drawn massive crowds, and considerable leaps of imagination.Since it first took flight in 1991 at Vienna, the Flugtag competition has travelled to countries like the US, Czech Republic, New Zealand and France.
For the local edition sixteen teams from across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Belgaum and Hyderabad will travel to Sankey Tank with their entries. In a matter of minutes, the aircraft models built over a period of two months will be in the water, vying to glide further than the other. Teams will be judged on three pa rameters: flight distance, the originality of their craft and showmanship. Participants have rushed to ready not just the planes but also the skits and songs they plan to present.
"It has to be memorable, after all," says former aviation student Girish Bhat, who now works on maintaining commercial jets. He will be onboard the 'Kryptonic Kacchhaa' with the other 'Renegades'. After several weekends at a godown inside the Juhu Aerodrome, the craft has transformed from a thermocol and-aluminum skeleton to a giant pair of undies in Superman's colours.
"Superman didn't have his trademark chaddis on in the last film, so we assume he has lost them," says Bhat, grinning."The idea is that they have been found and are on their way to him."
In Hyderabad, the Wikiwakywoo team has decided to deal with an on-ground conundrum instead. "We built a giant egg-shaped frame for our plane, with wings resembling a chicken's," says Farha Kudari. The group plans to use a foam hammer to break the front of the egg at Sankey Tank and show the fledgling, rather, the pilot dressed as one. "The air craft is our answer to the question: did the chicken come first or the egg?" adds teammate Kunal Mashettiwar. The challenge, like with other models, was to figure out how to make the plane as light as possible and ensure the thingamajigs attached were properly supported.
In previous Flugtag events, competing aircraft designs have ranged from a mutant jalapeno to a giant iPhone. There have been those modeled on the hyperactive squirrel, Scrat, from the film Ice Age and a winged dog with extra-fluffy ears.While some focus purely on the novelty factor, others take the time to build a craft that will actually fly , if only for a couple of seconds.
Back home, participants have been working overtime to strike a balance between originality and the mechanics of flight design. Those like Mumbai-based Sumedh Tare and team have dipped into history. Their craft has been inspired from a blueprint created by 19th-century inventors Shivkar Talpade, who some believe flew the first unmanned craft, years before the Wright Brothers did.
Then there is Bangalore's 'Smoke and Fly' team, who have looked for their muse on an alternate plane. "Rubber, steel, foam, plastic pipes, glass fiber, bamboo sticks," rattles off design engineer, Zaid Ahmed, from Bangalore's 'Smoke and Fly' team. Their Flugtag performance, virtuously commencing with the burning of agarbattis, includes a plane resembling a marijuana joint, intended to take the audience "higher and higher". There will even be a plume of white smoke issuing out of the plane.
"Four of us will be taking part, but our team really includes everyone from bankers, delivery boys, and security guards!" says Mumbai's Gurpreet Chawla, whose air craft design is that of Hanuman. The team had even shot a video to garner financial and creative support from locals, and roamed across Marine Drive, togged out as characters from the Ramayana.
But while most other teams are only stressing about the weight of the air craft, Chawla and friends decided the pilot too needed to drop a few kilos. "We had someone else piloting the air craft earlier, and he weighed only 55 kgs. But then he couldn't take part because of another commitment," Chawla explains. The current pilot, who is also the lightest in the team, at 75 kgs, has been put on a strict diet and exercise regimen. "He is a very bad mood right now, obviously," adds Chawla, laughing. "We really are going all out with this."