1 min
Bullseye Landing
Polish pilot Łukasz Czepiela attempts to land a plane atop Dubai’s famous Burj Al Arab high-rise building.
Everything you need to know about pilot Łukasz Cziepela’s breathtaking mission to land a plane on Dubai’s Burj Al Arab skyscraper.
As far as aviation feats go, landing a plane on a helipad is (literally) right up there. Especially so, when the helipad in question is just 27 metres in diameter – about the size of a basketball court, FYI – and located at 212 metres above sea level, on the side of one of Dubai’s most luxurious hotels.
But that’s precisely what aerobatic pilot Łukasz Cziepela pulled off at dawn on March 13th 2022, manoeuvring his modified, 7-metre Carbon Cub Ultralight aircraft into the history books.
With our apologies to guests on the Burj Al Arab skyscraper’s 56th floor, this was truly a remarkable achievement in the worlds of flying, engineering, and all-out awesomeness.
Let’s take a closer look at how Red Bull’s aviator and his team pulled it off.
Ideas like this are dreamed up in the clouds. For Red Bull pilot Łukasz Czepiela, the Burj Al Arab was not a must-see tourist destination but an all-consuming target for a world’s first—an aviation feat more than two years in the making.
“The idea came to us right after the pier landing in Sopot. It was the next step in testing what could be done with an airplane,” says Łukasz. “When I came up with the idea to land a plane on a helipad, I instantly thought of Burj Al Arab.”
We wanted to do something extraordinary, but on a global scale.
At 39 years old, and best known as the first Polish pilot to compete at Red Bull Air Race and winning the world championship in the Challenger class, as well as manoeuvring under three iconic bridges in Warsaw, Łukasz knew he was the man for the job.
If you want something badly enough, nothing can stop you.
But to pull it off, he needed a bespoke set of wings. American company Cub Crafters came on board. All they needed now was a mastermind…Having built 14 experimental planes to date, Mike Patey was the ideal chief engineer. With a passion for innovation and a respect for Łukasz’s flying, Mike quickly came onboard. “Luke is an amazing guy. I followed him in the past and his aerobatics, routine and air racing is just unbelievable,” Mike says.
The pair set about modifying a Carbon Cub Ultralight, but it would take more than a shiny new toy. “This type of landing, in those conditions, with a pretty much factory machine, requires specific mentality, excellent knowledge of this airframe and skills that only few can show off with,” Łukasz explains.
So, could they actually pull it off?