In September 2013, on an isolated airstrip, in northwest South Africa, two intrepid stunt men, one from the world of motocross, the other an aerobatic pilot, combined their talents to achieve a breathtaking stunt.
Organised by Red Bull, two years’ preparation were necessary for Nick de Wit, on his freestyle motocross (FMX) bike, and Glen Dell, in his Extra 300 aerobatic monoplane, to coordinate the extraordinary figure down to the nearest millimetre, and millisecond, in the making of a perilous backflip jump on a motorcycle, over a ‘plane, flying at 325 km/h (200mph), no more than two metres (6½ ft.) above the ground.
The main difficulty of the exercise being to make a perfectly synchronised jump with the bike, over the ‘plane flying at low enough altitude to avoid contact.
Five weeks after this spectacular stunt, the South African pilot, with more than 25,000 flight hours, in over 250 types of aircraft, was killed in an airshow in Secunda, (100 miles) to the north west of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 51 years old. With this video, Red Bull paid tribute and their last respects to Glen Dell.
