Nowadays you no longer make a backflip impression, but the German Freestyle motocross rider Luc Ackerman has done a very special backflip that would even set the smartest physicist for a challenge: between two moving trucks on the highway.
On a highway in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the northwest of Germany, Luc Ackermann accelerated his motorcycle up to 54 km/h from the body of a truck that drove with 20 km/h. With a combined speed of 74 km/h, he jumped up in the air, carried out a Tsunami backflip and landed safely on a second truck that drove right in front of him, while he flew over a 9 meter high matrix construction.
The flight itself covered 40 meters, a distance of 23 meters between the vehicles, where the timing had to be correct within 0.5 seconds. The motorcyclist carried out the jump without a speedometer, purely based on instinct and experience.
“Precision and timing were particularly important for this project, because if I didn’t take off at the right speed and at the right time, I would either bump into the board or miss the landing,” Ackermann explains. His brother, FMX-professional driver Hannes Ackermann, was in the start truck and gave the crucial signal for the exact starting moment.
“For this project I had to trust my team completely,” says Ackermann. This also included truck drivers Franz Reinthaler and Walter “Bill” Kranawendter, who had the task of keeping their 31 meter long vehicles perfectly aligned, 23 meters apart, at a constant speed of 20 km/h. Thanks to their coordination, Ackermann was able to fully concentrate on the jump.
A detailed scientific preparation was hidden behind the spectacle. Thomas Stögggl, head of Global Performance Innovation at the Athlete Performance Center in Thalgau, Austria, calculated each parameter – from the acceleration of the motorcycle to the speed of the trucks, the start corner, the flight curve and even the wind conditions – to make the jump as safe as possible.
After the landing, Ackermann admitted that the emotional discharge was enormous. “The feeling after the jump was overwhelming because I realized that it was just enough. [..] Preparations lasted a few days and there was a lot of tension. It was just overwhelming to let that tension slide away from me. I really partyed and actually got half crazy. “
The project is compared to a complex comparison that is carried out in real time: speed, trajectory and aerodynamics combined in a half -second decision. With the support of his team and the application of scientific accuracy, Ackermann translated calculations into athletic performance, with which he strengthened his reputation as one of the most demanding and fearless drivers in Freestyle Motocross.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.