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Nissan Wednesday announced it has been named the exclusive automotive partner of the Red Bull Flugtag Nashville, which will be held September 23, 2017, in Nashville’s Riverfront Park on the banks of the Cumberland River. The announcement was made in a statement issued in Nashville, Tennessee. The statement said the all-new 2017 Nissan Rogue Sport is designated as the official vehicle of the event and will be used onsite, along with other Nissan vehicles.
Nissan’s engagement at Flugtag – which means “flying day” in German – also includes vehicle displays and consumer activities to engage the crowd. Attendance at the Red Bull Flugtag Nashville is expected to be 80,000. More than 100 Red Bull Flugtags have been held around the world since 1992.
“Nissan is proud to be partnering with Red Bull and hosting this celebration of engineering and ingenuity in our hometown of Nashville,” said Jeremy Tucker, Nissan’s vice president, Marketing Communications and Media. “With our North American headquarters nearby, Nissan Stadium as a backdrop, and a team of employees creating its own Flugtag from the nearby Smyrna Assembly plant, Nissan had to be a part of the fun.”
For the Nashville Flugtag, 42 carefully selected teams will attempt to defy gravity from an 110-foot long, 24-foot high “flight deck.” The current global Flugtag Flight record is 258 feet. Among the teams competing will be the entry from Nissan’s vehicle assembly plant in Smyrna. Team members have been spending nights and weekends engineering its “Take On Flight”-themed entry.
“The Nashville Flugtag is a great opportunity to showcase Nissan’s creativity, engineering know-how and our tremendous American manufacturing presence. Just 30 miles outside of Nashville, the Smyrna operation is the highest volume vehicle assembly plant in North America and employs 8,400 people,” said John Martin, senior vice president, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Purchasing, Nissan North America, Inc.
The Nissan team is made up of a diverse group of 15 employees from around the Smyrna plant, brought together by a love of aviation and a sense of adventure. Of the larger group helping with construction, five will actually perform on the platform and “fly” into the Cumberland River. Headed by Manufacturing Line Director Shawn Williams and Product Quality Assurance Engineer Ben Myburgh, the team has been using its experience and engineering skills – and access to computer modelling software – analysing every angle to make the “Take On Flight” Flugtag soar the farthest. Sticking closely to Red Bull Flugtag rules, the vehicle can’t weigh more than 400 pounds, including the pilot, or have a wingspan longer than 22 feet. Building the top-secret entry has taken place in a borrowed hangar at Smyrna Airport.
Though their days are spent building quality cars and trucks, the Nissan “Take On Flight” Flugtag team includes five licensed pilots, experienced aircraft builders and aviation enthusiasts. In addition to the actual flight, entrants are required to demonstrate a high level of showmanship, including a pre-launch skit. Leaving nothing to chance, team members will be taking dance lessons and learning to hang glide.
“Of all the vehicles produced at Smyrna in the past 34 years, perhaps none has generated the excitement of our Flugtag flying machine,” added Martin. “We’re out to win it. Plus it is just good fun.”
