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Dani Roman and Fred Fugen were shot out of Europe’s tallest chimney, accelerating from 0 to 180 km/h in just 2.15 seconds, and earning two new Guinness World Records™ titles.
Red Bull B.A.S.E. jumpers Dani Roman and Fred Fugen reached 180 km/h in just seconds on Thursday, November 5, when launching out of Europe’s tallest chimney to earn two new Guinness World Records™ titles with a vision of reimagining the possibilities of human flight.
Here is all you need to know:
- Frenchman Fugen is one of the most innovative B.A.S.E. jumpers on the planet, who has undertaken a series of solo or team projects as well as joining seven of the world’s best wingsuit pilots for the world’s longest formation flight over Mont Blanc.
- Spaniard Roman, who was also part of that June 2026 attempt, has also unveiled ambitious projects like the Ultimate Aerial Obstacle Course, which he played a large part of developing over two years.
- For this latest project, the pair combined to launch from a 60-metre human catapult built inside the top section of Slovenia’s 360-metre Trbovlje chimney with not one, but two new Guinness World Records™ at stake.
- The Red Bull athletes accelerated from 0 to 180 km/h in just 2.15 seconds before leaving the catapult’s launch capsule and continuing vertically into the air.
- After a brief zero-gravity moment upon reaching the flight apex, they then transitioned into freefall, reaching similar speeds before eventually deploying their parachutes and landing safely.
- Roman set the record for the greatest height by human catapult of 100.36 metres in vertical height, then – during a dual launch – they set the record for greatest combined height by human catapult of 151.72 metres, where Roman reached 75.97 metres and Fugen 75.75 metres when launched simultaneously.
- Roman, 35, revealed: “You’re standing in the capsule waiting through the countdown, and then at five seconds to go, you take a deep breath and tense your whole body. Then it’s just ‘bam!’. You keep going up and up, then suddenly it feels like everything around you is moving in slow motion before you start accelerating downward again. It’s just surreal, and really good fun.”
- The 60-metre catapult was developed specifically for the project by Slovenian stunt acrobats and engineers DD Squad, while it featured a two-ton multi-spring system with a launch mechanism that had Roman and Fugen experience incredible acceleration forces of up to 4.2G during the chimney exit.
- Fugen, 47, added: “The reality of what happened here is crazy. With a catapult of this scale, we’re going into something quite unknown, and we have to rely on all of our experience to handle the jump after a launch that is so unique and extreme. It’s something you cannot train for, but we fully trust DD Squad.”
- The idea took inspiration from the Ultimate Aerial Obstacle Course, and the project took two and a half years to develop, exploring a new way of beginning a B.A.S.E. jump using a mechanical launch.
- Initial development began with a smaller catapult test over water, then six-metre catapults used in the Ultimate Aerial Obstacle Course before ending with a 12-metre version at Sass Pordoi, Italy, which exposed the athletes to approximately 4G to prepare them for the acceleration of the final chimney launch.
- For Red Bull Human Catapult, the launch system was scaled up to 60 metres for vertical launch and took around two months to build it inside the Trbovlje chimney.
- Gašper Novak, CEO of DD Squad, explained: “This project became our whole life for two months. We worked on the chimney six days a week, around 14 hours a day, and even slept at the top of the chimney one night during the build. From an engineering perspective, the challenge wasn’t simply to create as much power as possible. It was to find the right power while keeping the launch as controlled as possible to ensure safety.”
- Prada Linea Rossa equipped Roman and Fugen with technical pants, jackets, sweatshirts, footwear, and eyewear, combining comfort and functionality to help the inspirational duo achieve their two new Guinness World Records™ titles.
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