Fighter aviation in Brazil is turning 74, and Ayrton Senna also had the chance to feel what it was like to fly in one of these powerful machines. In 1989, the racecar driver was invited by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) to take part in an experimental flight in An\u00e1polis, in the state of Goi\u00e2nia, under supervision of Colonel Alberto de Paiva C\u00f4rtes. Ayrton had already flown in a fighter jet in 1987, in Rio de Janeiro, but this time the event would be covered by the media, including TV cameras.<\/p>\n
The flight took place on March 29, 1989, six months after Senna won his first F1 world title. The plane was a Mirage III, F-103 D model, which featured advanced components for the time, like an ejection seat, as well as a reliable oxygen and communications system for the pilot and the copilot \u2013 who would be Senna.<\/p>\n
The jet, designed in 1972 and discontinued in 2005, was able to reach 2,350 kmh (1,460 mph) and the one flown by Senna is on display at the Rio de Janeiro Aerospace Museum, according to news website Terra.<\/p>\n
Ayrton Senna\u2019s experiences with the aircrafts went to Senna\u2019s head \u2013 literally. Sid Mosca, in charge of designing the driver\u2019s helmets, created a special model with the drawing of two airplanes on the top of the driver\u2019s iconic helmet.<\/p>\n
Take a look at TV Globo\u2019s story (Brazilian TV) about Senna\u2019s unforgettable experience (in portuguese).<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-84BtTqsUXY<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fighter aviation in Brazil is turning 74, and Ayrton Senna also had the chance to feel what it was like to fly in one of these powerful machines. In 1989, the racecar driver was invited by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) to take part in an experimental flight in An\u00e1polis, in the state of Goi\u00e2nia, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,17,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias","category-novidades","category-senna-na-midia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.senna.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}