February the 21st, 2026 – Rimac hypercars and the company’s talented engineers have aided Red Bull athlete Dario Costa in pulling off a unique move.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, when Red Bull athlete Dario Costa landed on a moving freight train travelling at 120 km/h, he became the first pilot in aviation history to land and take off from a moving train. The historic feat was the result of months of meticulous preparation, with Rimac’s Nevera R and Nevera hypercars used as training tools at the heart of it all.
The feat, which took place on February the 15th, 2026, on a 2.5-km-long railway track in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey, required Costa to approach a moving container train at a near-stop speed of just 87 km/h. He had to do that while also battling strong currents, a vanishing target, and a limited 50-second time frame in which to land and take off again. There was absolutely no room for error and there was no precedent.
In preparation, Rimac Automobili collaborated with Costa on a three-day test programme at Pula Airport in Croatia. The Nevera R, the fastest accelerating car ever built, and the Nevera hypercar were used as high-precision platforms, giving Costa a real moving surface on which to practice blind landings.
At speeds fully comparable to those required for a real landing target, the Rimac hypercars allowed Costa to practice speed synchronisation, alignment estimation and reaction time.
“This project perfectly expresses everything Rimac stands for,” said Mate Rimac, founder of the Rimac Group. “Dario needed to practice something that had never been done before, which meant that there was no previous method or solution. Our hypercars provided him with a real, moving reference point at very high speeds, something that few vehicles on the planet can provide with such precision and speed. When you’re entering completely unknown territory, you need tools that match your ambition. We were extremely proud to have been a part of that.”
In addition to assisting with the training, Rimac’s innovative engineering team, experts in composite structures and precision ergonomics, used the knowledge gained from their work on the remarkable Nevera to design and manufacture a fully customised seat for Costa. It was developed from scratch to fit the extremely limited cockpit space of his aircraft.
The seat was shaped exactly to Costa’s precise body shape and calibrated to his requirements: maximum stability, optimal control feedback and reduced fatigue during extreme maneuvers. In a discipline where pilot input must be absolutely precise, the seat represents a significant engineering contribution, and as far as is known, this is the first application of this level of precision seat engineering to a racing aircraft.
Rimac engineers also worked with Costa on the aerodynamic optimisation of his aircraft’s cabin using the company’s CFD expertise, a collaboration that will continue on upcoming projects.
Roni Kert, Sales and Marketing Director at Bugatti Rimac, said: “Red Bull and Rimac share the same spirit of pushing boundaries and exploring the impossible. This project was another bold idea born from a shared mindset and an opportunity to do something truly unprecedented. At Rimac, innovation and performance are part of our DNA, so we were delighted to work with Red Bull, supporting Dario Costa during the preparatory phase and contributing our technical expertise to take the project to the next level.”
