Dario Costa
Dario Costa press conference Challenger Cup Lake Balaton 2019
Born9 May 1980 (1980-05-09) (age 43)
Manchester, United Kingdom
NationalityItalian
Websitedariocosta.com

Dario Costa (born 9 May 1980, Manchester, United Kingdom) born to an Iranian mother and an Italian father, is an Italian professional Red Bull Air Race competitor, stunt pilot, aerobatic performer, flight instructor, Pilatus PC6 Porter paradropping pilot and author from Bologna, Italy[1] and is the first ever Italian to qualify, to compete and to win in the Red Bull Air Race World Series.[2] Dario lives in Salzburg, Austria and is also known for various world-first flying stunts and world records including the first and only ever flight through a tunnel with an airplane.

Biography

Dario Costa spent his early childhood traveling across North Africa building up his passion for flying, then, at the age of six, moved to Bologna, where he started to learn piloting while at high school where after formal flight training he did his first solo flight at the age of 16 in 1996. Earned his living initially as gardener, swimming pool cleaner, postman and later on as theoretical instructor at his flying club and former high school enabling him few years later, after winning Aeroclub Bologna's first ever scholarship, to obtain his commercial pilot, flight instructor and aerobatic flight-instructor qualifications.

Teaching and competing in aerobatics, Dario evolved with the sport and in 2011, while still teaching full-time, was contest director of the 2011 FAI World Aerobatic Championships and became Chief Flight and Ground Instructor at the Aeroclub Milano.

In October 2013, Costa joined the Red Bull Air Race World Championship as flight operations manager, development and ferry pilot.

In 2016, Costa became the first Italian to ever qualify as Red Bull Air Race World Championship race pilot.[2]

Dario Costa winning the Red Bull Air Race Challenger Cup in Lake Balaton, 2019

In 2017, Costa became the first airplane pilot to ever fly in synchro with freestyle skier. The skier was the Italian Ian Rocca, the location was the Mottolino Livigno snowpark and the stunt was part of a Lamborghini ad.[3]

In 2018, Costa started competing in the Red Bull Air Race Challenger Cup becoming the first Italian to join this motorsport competition. On his second race got on the podium[4] and on his second season won the 2019 Challenger Cup in Lake Balaton.[5][6][7]

In July 2018, Costa became the first civilian airplane pilot to ever fly and be featured in an air to air photo-shooting over the city of Venice, in Italy.[8] and also became the first pilot, together with Ben Murphy, to ever perform a Red Bull Air Race demo at the Farnborough International Airshow, the world's second-largest show of its kind.[9]

In March 2019, Costa became the first airplane pilot to ever fly low level racing manoeuvres over the Namib Desert, in this occasion for a Hamilton Watch ad.[10]

In 2019, Costa became the first airplane pilot to ever perform and include in his display routine a barrel roll in formation flight together with a helicopter[11] flown by another Italian pilot Mirko Flaim and also became the second pilot to ever include in his display routine multiple consecutive barrel rolls around wingsuit skydivers, in his case the Austrian Red Bull Skydive Team.

In September 2019, Costa has performed at the Airpower, the biggest airshow in Europe.[12]

In June 2020, Costa has performed in the Red Bull movie "Drum the Bull", a music video in which the internationally renowned percussionist Martin Grubinger combines classical music with the sounds of different motorsports, including the modified Zivko Edge 540 flown by Costa, to celebrate the 2020 Formula One World Championship back to back opening races in Spielberg.[13]

In July 2020, Costa became the first airplane pilot to ever fly at low level, in this occasion for the F1 Styrian GP, along the whole Red Bull Ring racetrack for a kind of track preview video never done before.[14]

In 2020, Costa has performed as opening act of the F1 Styrian GP, MotoGP Austrian and Styrian GP's and of the World Rally Championship in Turkey, becoming the first airplane pilot to ever perform as side-act at a F1 and a MotoGP and a World Rally Championship race in the same year.

In October 2020, Costa has performed in two of the break dance competition Red Bull BC One World Finals announcement videos, flying in synchro with dancer Rico Coker.

On 2 January 2021, Costa unveiled a live biometric system installed in his stunt-plane since 2020. A tailor made system based on an original idea from Costa himself and Marcel Stenner which software was then programmed by Red Bull Innovation Team.[15]

On 20 January 2021 Costa unveiled a tailor made seat based on the current F1 and World Rally Championship seats adapted by Red Bull Athlete Performance Center physiotherapist David Denifl together with Austrian motorcycle road racer August Auinger and race car driver Bernhard Auinger.[16]

On 21 April 2021 was announced that Costa will be racing in the top category of the World Championship Air Race planned to start in early 2022. This championship replaces the Red Bull Air Race and its new top category, replacing the Red Bull Air Race Master Class, is called AeroGP1.

On 4 September 2021 Costa flew through T1 and T2 tunnels on the Northern Marmara Motorway in Istanbul becoming the first ever pilot to fly through a tunnel and setting the Guinness World Record of longest tunnel flown by an airplane.[17]

In May 2022 for his second time, Costa has performed in a Lamborghini ad video campaign, this time for the Huracan Tecnica model launch.[18]

On 20 June 2022 a scientific article about the Tunnel Pass project was published by Costa and written together with Mikel Lucas Garcia de Albeniz Martinez, Barbara Forster, Peter Adrian Leitl and Andreas Flaschger.[19]

In summer 2022 an online videogame called "Red Bull Giro Veloce" was made in which players could choose to use either Costa or F1 driver Max Verstappen to respectively fly or drive in the Red Bull Ring racetrack to win a flight with Dario or a day with Max.[20]

On 26 August 2022 Costa gave a Ted Talk at the TedX Cortina.[21]

In September 2022 in Polignano a Mare, Italy, Costa became the first airplane pilot to ever fly in synchro with a diver positioning himself in a climbing vertical path beside the descending diver jumping from 27 meters height. Four professional high divers have performed in this project: Alessandro De Rose, Catalin Preda, Artem Silchenko, Aidan Heslop, coordinated by Orlando Duque. From this performance various videos and pictures in honor of Domenico Modugno were produced.[22]

On 2 and 3 September 2022 Costa, together with Mirko Flaim, the Red Bull Skydive Team and The Flying Bulls, have performed at the Airpower 22 international airshow in Zeltweg, Austria, a new version of the Red Bull Aerobatic Triple for the very first time in public.[23]

On 3 November 2022 the book "il Tunnel Perfetto" written in Italian language by Dario Costa and co-writer Biagio D'Angelo was published by Edizioni Minerva. Its English version was announced to be published in early 2023.[24]

After almost a year of work with his partner Prada, in early 2023, the world's first specifically made race and aerobatic flight suit, shoes and gloves were unveiled with two dedicated movies.[25]

In May 2023, Dario and Swift Fuel GmbH, announced their cooperation to use and develop renewable fuels for high performance aviation engines.[26]

Other activities and curiosities

For almost ten years Dario has been a player of the Fortitudo Baseball Bologna competing in the U12, U15 (Cadetti) and U18 (Juniores) Italian Regional and National Baseball Championships till 1996. He has been mainly playing as second baseman and pitcher, but was selected once as relief pitcher for the Italian National Under 18 Team. His baseball uniform number was mainly the 32, which is the number he uses as a race pilot.

In October and November 2020 Dario was spotted in Rome performing as stuntman for the movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.[27]

Awards and accolades

  • In 2022, Costa and the "Tunnel Pass" project were awarded with the following ten awards: 2x Bronze Clio awards, 1x Gold and 1x Bronze New York Festivals awards, 2x Gold and 1x Bronze Golden Drum awards, 1x Gold and 1x Bronze Effie awards, 1x Bronze Art Directors Club of Europe award.
  • In 2021, Costa was awarded with the Guinness World Record of the first and longest ever tunnel flown by an airplane.
  • In 2015, Costa was awarded by the Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano with the "Medaglia al valore atletico" (Medal for athletic prowess).
  • On 5 August 2018, Costa was featured in a picture over Venice which was included in "The best images in sport" by The Sunday Times.[28]
  • On 8 November 2019, Costa was awarded by the Italian Region Emilia Romagna for his sport achievements[29]

Filmography

Date Title Location Notes
April 2017 Lamborghini – Aventador S: Dare your EGO at high Altitude[3] Livigno, Italy Directed by Alessandro Zorio
November 2017 Briko – The Golden Helmet: Episode 3[30] Salzburg, Austria featuring Lindsey Vonn
September 2019 Hamilton Watch – Dreams of Flight[31] Namib Desert, Namibia Directed by Jacob Sutton
July 2020 Red Bull – Drum the Bull[32] Red Bull Ring, Austria Directed by Fritz Melchert
July 2020 Red Bull – 2020 Styrian Grand Prix | Formula 1 Track Preview[14] Red Bull Ring, Austria Directed by Christoph Deja
October 2020 Red Bull BC One | 2020 World Finals[33] Salzburg, Austria Produced by Red Bull Media House
May 2022 Lamborghini – Huracan Tecnica: Fun to drive con Dario Costa[34] Salzburg, Austria Directed by Alessandro Zorio
August 2022 Red Bull – Aerobatic Triple 2.0[23] Zeltweg, Austria Directed by Christoph Deja
September 2022 Red Bull – VOLARE[22] Polignano a Mare, Italy Produced by Red Bull Media House
February 2023 Prada – Prada for Dario Costa[35] Salzburg, Austria Directed by Jacob Sutton

Results

Italian National Powered Aerobatic Championship

Season Category Location Ranking
2015 Unlimited Lucca, Italy 1st
2010 Sportsman Ravenna, Italy 2nd

Red Bull Air Race

Challenger Class

Year 1 2 3 4 5 Podiums Wins
2018 United Arab Emirates
4th		 France
3rd		 Russia
5th		 Austria
5th		 United States
5th		 1 0
2019 United Arab Emirates
5th		 Hungary
1st		 Hungary
2nd		 CAN CAN 2 1

Legend: * CAN: Cancelled * DNP: Did not participate * DNS: Did not start * DSQ: Disqualified

References

  1. ↑ Red Bull Athlete Profile
  2. 1 2 "Red Bull Air Race Pilot Profile". Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Aventador S: Dare your EGO at High Altitude!". YouTube.
  4. ↑ "Il volo verso il sogno di Dario Costa e la Red Bull Air Race". Red Bull (in Italian). 30 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Costa Takes Maiden Win In Balaton". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  6. ↑ "Dario Costa è il primo pilota italiano a vincere la Red Bull Air Race- Video Gazzetta.it". La Gazzetta dello Sport. 16 July 2019.
  7. ↑ Nava, Carlo (17 July 2019). "Dario Costa è il primo italiano a volare e vincere alla Red Bull Air Race".
  8. ↑ Air Race Red Bull (subscription required)
  9. ↑ "Red Bull Air Race only 2018 UK appearance at the Farnborough International Airshow".
  10. ↑ "Dreams of Flight di Hamilton: un sogno diventato realtà". tuttosport.com (in Italian). 23 September 2019.
  11. ↑ "Incredibile Dario Costa: Il pilota italiano conquista un altro primato sfidando le leggi della fisica". 4 August 2019.
  12. ↑ "RED BULL Aerobatic Triple – AIRPOWER19 6.-7. Sept 19". www.airpower.gv.at. Archived from the original on 18 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Hayley Rogers (7 January 2020). "Red Bull Ring celebrates the return of Formula One with motorsports anthem". Red Bull.
  14. 1 2 "Flying Lap of Red Bull's F1 Ring I Red Bull Aerobatics w/ David Coulthard and Dario Costa – YouTube". YouTube.
  15. ↑ "Dario Costa on Instagram: "Bold ideas alone are not enough to make a change, you need some brave people believing in your vision to bring them to life. #HYPERPLANE Let me introduce you the wildest airplane upgrade done in 2020. This is the biometric onboard system installed in the Stunt-Edge that shows and records in real-time my body key data. It is something that myself and @m.stenner had in mind since long time and that on 26th of May 2020 I've presented to @simon_pircher at @redbull , who, instead of laughing at me like some others, together with his amazing team members @manuonwaves and @michiwimmer have put the system together in a record time to allow me to already test-fly it few days later in the 2020 F1 Track Preview project (Link in bio). I can't tell you much more about, but we are working on it to show it more from now on 👐🎛👐 #biometrics Hands up to all the incredible people involved behind the scenes of the Stunt-Edge mods, from the ones creating the softwares to the ones building the hardwares 🙌🙏🙌 • • • #aviation #airplane #stuntflying #avgeek #zivkoedge540 #redbull #hamiltonwatch #mount10 #BIOMETRIC"".
  16. ↑ "Dario Costa on Instagram: "⚠️TECH-UNVEILING⚠️ Swipe to install the HYPER-SEAT and strap in for the next level‼️💺 It might look raw, but damn it is the coolest thing I've ever sat on !!! For so long I've been imagining how it would be to stunt-fly and race with a seat with my exact body shape to prevent waste of energy. Roll rates and G-Forces you reach in this kind of machines are higher than any other motorsport and still not so common to see an #F1 style seat in aviation, but we decided to go against the trend once again and since last week the Stunt-Edge has one with multiple benefits thanks to three Austrian sport Legends: @redbull Athlete Performance Center physiotherapist @daviddenifl, who has started in summer 2020 to support me in this crazy project working on the design based on the body mechanics while @redbullmotorsports racers @auinger.bernhard and his Father himself, Mr August Auinger, have built this prototype seat adding their incredible racing know-how. Grazie Ragazzi!!!🔝🙏🔝 and last, but not least, a very special thanks to my friend Hermann 👐 #pushingboundaries #hyperseat • • • #raceseat #stuntplane #stuntflying #formula1 #raceplane #motorsport #motorsports #redbull #hamiltonwatch #mount10 #redbullathleteperformancecenter #HYPERPLANE"".
  17. ↑ "Longest tunnel flight world record broken in Turkey". Daily Sabah. Istanbul. 4 September 2021. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
  18. ↑ "Huracán Tecnica: Fun to drive con Dario Costa". Lamborghini.com. 15 December 2023.
  19. ↑ Yin, Qiaozhi; Kong, Dexu; Deng, Jian; Wei, Xiaohui; Song, Jiayi (15 June 2022). AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi:10.2514/6.2022-3644. ISBN 9781624106354. S2CID 249936476 – via arc.aiaa.org (Atypon).
  20. ↑ "Concorso Fratelli Arena". www.redbull.com.
  21. ↑ "Dario Costa". TedxCortina. Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  22. 1 2 Stefano Nicoli (14 September 2022). "Volare: quando il cliff diving e il volo acrobatico si incontrano in Puglia". Red Bull (in Italian).
  23. 1 2 Günter Baumgartner (9 August 2022). "Red Bull Aerobatic Triple: Atemberaubende Weltpremiere bei der AIRPOWER22". Red Bull (in German).
  24. ↑ "Il tunnel perfetto". www.minervaedizioni.com.
  25. ↑ "Prada for Dario Costa". www.Prada.com.
  26. ↑ "Renewable Fuel". www.swiftfuel.eu.
  27. ↑ "Dario Costa". IMDb.
  28. ↑ "The best images in sport". The Times.
  29. ↑ "Sign In". sts.regione.emilia-romagna.it.
  30. ↑ "The Golden Helmet: Episode 3 (360 Video) | Briko". YouTube.
  31. ↑ "An aviator watch to co-pilot our Dreams of Flight". Hamilton Watch.
  32. ↑ "Red Bull Ring celebrates the return of Formula One with motorsports anthem". Red Bull. 7 July 2020.
  33. ↑ "Red Bull BC One 2020 World Finals". Red Bull.
  34. ↑ "Huracan Tecnica: Fun to drive con Dario Costa". Lamborghini. 15 December 2023.
  35. ↑ "Prada for Dario Costa". Prada.
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