On October 23, 1989, a massive Ilyushin IL-62 jetliner touched down on a short stretch of farmland in rural Brandenburg. The grassy strip at Stölln was less than 900 meters (2,900 feet) long, and after careful planning and rehearsal flights, the plane, nicknamed “Lady Agnes,” landed safely, an aviation stunt that has since entered the Guinness Book of Records.
The jet was flown by an skilled Interflug captain, who shut down two engines mid-approach and used every trick in the book to slow the aircraft.
Today, Lady Agnes still rests where she landed.
The forward cabin houses a permanent exhibition on East German civil aviation, complete with original Interflug memorabilia. The rear cabin serves an even more unusual purpose: it’s an official registry office. Over a thousand couples have said “I do” inside the fuselage of the old jet.
Next to the jet, you can find a wind-swept slope called “Gollenberg,” the flight training ground where Otto Lilienthal practiced gliding and tragically lost his life. For this reason, the field is considered the world’s first airfield.
For visitors, though, the real marvel is still the gleaming red-and-white aircraft sitting in a Brandenburg field, proof that sometimes the wildest ideas actually take flight.
