Video: Not-so-magnificent men in their flying machines at the Red Bull Flugtag in Leeds

Yesterday’s Red Bull Flugtag in Leeds was the 103rd in the world since 1991 and drew an estimated 15,000 people to cheer, despite the downpours.

Yorkshire had 22 teams in the field of 34 who lined up to plunge into the big lake in Roundhay Park – and took the first three places and the credit for the nearest thing all day to an actual flight.

The first event ever to be held was in Austria and the name, German for “fly day”, remains today. The “flying machines” involved are mostly designed more for comedy value than aerodynamic function, with the rules including an understanding that after the pilot has gone down with his machine, his launch team will follow them into the water.

Competitors mainly expect to achieve little more than a 10-second disaster video but somehow, sometimes, a fluke combination of weight, design, launch speed and wind, actually keeps somebody aloft for long enough to say a prayer. The record is 63.1 metres, from a launch platform six metres (20 feet) high.

All the competitors know the figure to beat, and some of yesterday’s were serious engineers who had done sums and experiments with a real intention of beating it.

But most of them were there just for the laughs involved in pushing an obviously inappropriate vehicle off a slipway in fancy dress.

It quickly became clear the motivation did not make much difference.

There were more points to be had for creativity and pre-launch performance than for the distance covered.

The Turner family, from Tadcaster, were among those who had made a serious effort to build a machine which might go somewhere.

Their pilot was William Turner, an engineering student at Cambridge, who took control of a craft built on his designs by father Michael. The engineer for Yorkshire Water spent five weeks building his son’s design out of aluminium and heat-shrunk pallet wrap, and constructing a sort of catapult to hurl it off its launch trolley.

Cousins Robert and James Turner and their father David helped out with the plane, which was aptly named the Water Drop, and the team performance included a dance symbolising the water cycle.

The machine travelled 9.72 metres, according to a Leica system, but that basically meant it went down at a sharp angle rather than just plummeting.

“I was surprised how little it hurt,” said William, emerging from the rescue boat.

“I took off and there was this massive bang and I thought ‘Oh no’ and that was it. We’ll definitely do it again.”

A couple of places back, the Chitty Chitty Bling Bling team, from the Wirral, confirmed their car-shaped vehicle was not really expected to take off unless magic intervened.

“Basically, it’s one big crumple zone,” said pilot Paul Pendleton.

His assistant, calling herself Baroness von Bling, said: “I’m here because his wife wouldn’t do it and they needed a mad bird who doesn’t mind jumping off piers.”

Debbie Lane, a lecturer from Southend, was flying Kanabal Kapers for her dad, Colin, who built it with the help of some old books on aerodynamics.

She drew the blood the crowd had been waiting for, through a long scratch on her leg. Everyone taking part had to sign a disclaimer saying accidents were their own responsibility. But the promoters, makers of the Red Bull drink, did have teams of boatmen and divers to pull people and wreckage from the water. “It took eight months to set all this up,” said one of the organisers.

“But basically you sign your life away in order to have a go,” summed up Roz Laux, who was in the Leeds team titled James & The Giant Yorkshire Pudding.

Their craft’s designer, Ben Parish, was an architect, which sounded promising. “But unfortunately he is the kind who specialises in bricks,” said Roz’s brother, Greg.

Their best chance of points, they reckoned, was a dance they had devised to Something Good by the Utah Saints ... a band from Harrogate, it turns out.

All the Yorkshire teams had tried hard for their local references. Paul Woodcock, who runs Apex Loft Conversions of Barnsley, was the last hopeful designer of the afternoon, with a machine built out of insulating foam and shaped like a kestrel – because of the connection between Barnsley and the film Kes.

It flew like a penguin, of course, but it covered 18 metres, making it best of the day for distance. Sadly, that was not enough to win the Flugtag, because the team lost points for a delayed launch.

YORKSHIRE ENTRY WINS

WINNER was a Leeds entry, To Infinity & The Pond,captained by Jonny Heath and featuring characters from the Toy Story films, played by him and team mates Keith Perigo and Tim Heath. The trio could pick their prize from £5,000, flying lessons, or flights in top aerobatic planes. When constructing their entry, they may have had in mind one of the most famous lines from the first Toy Story, which comes from cowboy Woody after spaceman Buzz Lightyear has attempted to prove he can fly ... “That wasn’t flying; that was falling with style.” Come On Kes, was second and Mr Wippy & His Team of Toppings, from Leeds, came third.