PÉTER BESENYEI

Péter Besenyei was born in June 1956. At the age of 20 he entered his first flying competition piloting a glider and immediately showed how talented he was by winning a silver medal. In 1982 he was the overall winner at the Austrian National Championships but this time he piloted a motor-driven plane and performed aerobatics.

The run of success continued in 1990 when Besenyei, piloting a plane that most people in the sport considered to be obselete, finished in second place in the World Aerobatics Championships. In 1993 the world-famous watch manufacturer Breitling attracted by the spectacle offered by the sport of aerobatics and by its increasing popularity organised a series of competitions that were known as the Breitling Aerobatics World Cup. The world’s top twelve aerobatics pilots were invited to compete and despite his having to fly in various aeroplanes borrowed from other people Besenyei finished in the first three. In 1996 the World Cup was succeeded by the FAI Aerobatics Grand Prix series, of which 1996-98 Péter Besenyei was the overall winner.
In 1994, flying his own plane, Besenyei won a gold and a bronze medal at the World Championships, and in 1995 at the European Championships he won 2 gold and 2 silver medals and was the most successful pilot. In addition to participating in competitions the Hungarian ace also works as a professional pilot, flying instructor and test-pilot passing on to others and making use of the vast experience that he has acquired over the years. He is the most successful Hungarian pilot of our time and experts consider him to be among the world’s top 3 aerobatics pilots.
In addition to his international successes Péter Besenyei has been Hungarian national champion 10 times and has won the "Sportsman of the Year" award 14 times. For the last 16 years he has been a member of the Hungarian national aerobatics squad. In 1996 Péter Besenyei was presented with the "President of the Republic's Gold Medal" by Árpád Göncz the President of Hungary.