Peter Besenyei

“A part of your happiness is satisfaction. Whatever you achieve or whatever good fate has to give you, as long as you are not satisfied with it, you are doomed to be unhappy. But satisfaction does not mean you can rest on your laurels and need not strive to improve yourself.”

Peter Besenyei

Aviator since the age of 15 and a professional pilot, flying instructor, test pilot, and aerobatic competitor for 28 years,

Besenyei has flown various types of aircraft for a total of 7,000 hours. He entered his first competition at 20 and finished second with his glider. At his first international engine aerobatics competition in 1982, the Austrian National Championship, he won all events. Ever since, he’s been the most successful Hungarian pilot in every World and Continent Championship. A ten-time Hungarian National Champion, Besenyei’s been elected Athlete of the Year in Aerobatics on 21 occasions.

1994: Engine Aerobatics World Champion

1995: Engine Aerobatics European Champion

1997-98: FAI Aerobatics World Cup Combined Champion

2000: Engine Aerobatics World Champion

2001: Aerobatics World Cup Winner

Besenyei has been in the first three in European and World Championships and World Cup Heats more than thirty times. (Based on the most recent competition results, the World Cup is open for the top nine pilots in the unlimited category.)

In recognition of his sports achievements, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the President of the Republic by Árpád Göncz, and the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the International Aeronautics Federation. In June 2007 he obtained the Hungarian Heritage Prize.

Hungarian Heritage Prize

“Péter Besenyei is the third best known citizen of Hungary”, someone wrote, without naming the second, the fourth, the fifth or the first. However, what matters is not the serial number but the adjective “best known.”

Formula 1 World Champions Senna and Prost watched in admiration and with envy as their flying counterpart, aerobatics pilot Péter Besenyei flew under Budapest’s Chain Bridge, a feat broadcast by 47 national TV channels in 5 continents. Ever since, this manoeuvre has been part of the competitions. An air show presenter once said, “And now comes one of the best pilots in the world, the pride of Hungary, the wings of Hungarians.”

A successful sportsman, Péter contributes to the prestige of Hungary at competitions and shows with vertiginous manoeuvres between earth and sky. When results are announced, he makes the Hungarian National Anthem, a musical symbol of national affinity played in his honour, known to hundreds of thousands of spectators. Péter confesses that last year in Barcelona he was moved to tears at the sight of an enormous number of Hungarian flags in the hands of his fans as a sign of community.

Péter Besenyei was raised in the vicinity of the Budaörs airfield and used the hangar as his playground. Already at 15 he flew a glider. For the past 25 years he’s been a professional pilot, flying instructor, engine plane test pilot and aerobatic competitor. Péter obtained his pilot license before his driving license. To date he’s piloted various types of aircraft for a total of 7,000 hours, i.e. 292 days. However, Hungarian Airlines Malév refused to hire him due to alleged redundancies.

He won all events at his first-ever international competition in Austria. In the 1990 World Championship he flew the most obsolete aircraft, only to win a silver medal. Péter has won whatever is possible in this branch of sport as a two-time World Champion, a European Champion and Combined World Cup Winner. A ten-time Hungarian Champion, he’s been elected Athlete of the Year in Engine Aerobatics on 21 occasions, and became inventor of the Red Bull Air Race series, the aerobatics counterpart of Formula 1, which attracts hundreds of thousands, at times even millions, of spectators. The competitors must overcome challenging hurdles in each round as fast as possible.

In this year’s edition he’s become heat winner in Abu Dhabi and Monument Valley, Utah. Péter boasts of these achievements as citizen of a country which lacks aircraft factories and has an obsolete machine pool. In addition, no other Hungarian competitor had ever acquired international reputation in motorised sports. (Zsolt Baumgartner appeared later in Formula 1, and Gábor Talmácsi became a famous motorcycle racer only recently.)

Aerobatics calls for good space vision, physical endurance, good reflexes and fast decision making. A man with lively eyes, a friendly and fine, yet somewhat impish face, and a lank physique, Péter Besenyei is in possession of all these skills. The plane cruises at 330 km/h and tumbles at 420, while a force ten times your body weight is pushing you out of your seat. Yet, he performs his zigzags and flat spins upside down with great confidence thanks to a great deal of practice, circumspection, self discipline and humility, which is why he may do with his aircraft whatever he pleases.

The lowest height at which you can fly a plane in a vertical position is 2 meters above water and 4 meters above concrete or grass compared to 10 meters horizontally, as when flying between two poles.

Besenyei always picks a well-practised figure which best suits the circumstances in a given moment. He feels freedom in its entirety when moving about in the air.

Péter is open to almost everything. As well as playing the piano, he’s acquired the blue belt in kyokushinkai karate, performed 104 parachute jumps, taken photos, been an angler since his childhood, and practised diving and skiing. He likes music by Vangelis, Mike Oldfield and Oliver Shanti and has a sizeable collection of Celtic melodies.

“No matter what you do, do it at full steam or forget about it. (...) A part of your happiness is satisfaction. Whatever you achieve or whatever good fate has to give you, as long as you are not satisfied with it, you are doomed to be unhappy. But satisfaction does not mean you can rest on your laurels and need not strive to improve yourself.”

To conclude the introduction of this superb athlete, let me cite pop lyricist Dusán: “I wish Erika Miklósa of the Hungarian Opera sang to Aviator of the Year 2004 Péter Besenyei, holder of the Gold Medal of the President of the Republic and the Paul Tissandier Diploma.”

The Sky is Free

“A new time, a new world will come

The sky is free and calls you to fly on.

A new time, a new world will come

The sky is free and calls you to fly on.”

Budapest, 12 June 2007

Zoltán Novotny

Aerobatic Performance

Besenyei’s aerobatic performance is a combination of classical and individual elements, a kind of improvisation. His next figure is always the one best suited to the given situation. He never gives two shows that are identical nor flies in the same way, yet his character and style are unmistakeably “Besenyei.” He’s won a gold medal in absolute freestyle at European and World Championships and World Cups. Professionals consider his aerobatic performance one of the best, if not the best, in the world.

Biography

Péter first saw aircraft at the Budaörs airfield. It was love at first sight, if platonic until he turned 15.

At that age he took up gliding at the Ministry of Light Industry’s Aviation Club at Dunakeszi. At 19 he obtained his pilot license and at 20 he entered his first competition, the Budapest Championship, flying an old Super Futár make glider. This was the first competition for Besenyei and the last one for the plane because of its age.

While he flew farthest in the first event, his performance earned 0 points because his barograph (recording barometer) failed to work. Even so, he finished second combined.

He then joined the army for two years as a parachutist (with 104 jumps). In the first karate club of Kálmán Furkó he took up kyokushinkai karate. Later, he successfully passed the blue belt exam with Master István Adámy. In 1979 Péter was sent by his aviation club to complete an engine aircraft retraining course in Budaörs. In 1980 he obtained the engine aircraft pilot license and in spring 1981 he began aerobatic training. Already in autumn, he won the first two advanced category events in the Nyírség Cup Aerobatics Competition as a sensational novice, but then missed a figure in the third event and only came in fourth. From then on Péter only competed in the unlimited category. In the same autumn, selection coach László Simon elected him into Team A.

In 1982 a plane crash killed all male members of the aerobatics team. Péter was the only member of the Hungarian Defence Federation selection who was not allowed to board the plane. The tragedy wore him out and left its stamp on his training for years to come. He then went on to work, for nearly ten years, for the Hungarian Defence Federation’s Central Airfield at Budaörs as a pilot trainer and test pilot, then for Jet Stream and Indicator Rt. as a pilot.

Péter has practised car racing for years, whenever he’s had some free time. He competed in the Opel Astra Cup for two years and then in the Shell Power Racing Renault Clio Cup. Since 2001 his main sponsor has been Red Bull.

Since 2002 he’s been a key member of the team responsible for the development of Red Bull Air Race, with its first official edition organised in Hungary in 2003. Ever since he’s been a participant of the series and has nearly always ranked in the first three.

Achievements

Achievements Red Bull Air Race