The 2008 Red Bull Air Race World Champions
Michael Goulain flying through the air gates in Perth, Australia.
If you have not yet seen a Red Bull Air Race hold on to your seat. The races are more intense than any, NASCAR, Formula One, Speedboat, or Off-Roading race you may have seen because with specially built stunt planes flying a low level aerial track, you experience a race in 3-D. The vertical and horizontal course is marked by twenty, 65 foot high inflatable pylons known as ‘Air Gates’, and the pilots race with maneuvers requiring up to 12 g at speeds reaching 230 mph. The Red Bull competition has quickly evolved into one of the most extreme action sports on the planet.
The Red Bull Air Race uses a Formula One racing design where a group of international drivers race each other several times a year, always at a different track in a different country. At a Red Bull Air Race, twelve pilots compete and race individually against the clock and point system at courses around the globe. A quarter of the competing pilots hail from the U.S. including Michael Goulain from Maynard, Massachusetts, Mike Mangold from Victorville, California and Kirby Chambliss from near Tucson, Arizona. Each American pilot flies the small one-seater Edge 540 airplane which is as precise and controllable as it is aggressive. The Edge is a ‘Shoulder Wing’ plane with extremely stiff wings and a 340 hp engine. The use of a steel tube frame with composite fairings results in an extremely light, durable and stable fuselage giving the Edge 540 the highest aerobatic thrust to weight ratio of any competition aircraft. Often the difference in winning and coming in third or fourth can be just an Olympic-like fraction of a second.
Living up to the Red Bull tradition of a race that provides a spectacle of fast airplanes, skillful pilots and beautiful scenery, the last competition of 2008 was hosted in Perth, Australia. The city has been home to a Red Bull Air Race since 2005. The magical Swan River in Perth provided the perfect backdrop to an amazing three day event. Friday was practice day for the racing aircraft and offered a chance to meet the pilots followed by the two day event. On Saturday November 1, the pilots raced in qualifying rounds and on Sunday, the final competition and crowds were at their best. The event is always an extravaganza with giant TV screens easily seen in the bright daylight and a public address system where you can actually hear the announcer.
If you stop to watch everything going on around the race venue, you wonder how they can move the race from city to city. All along the shoreline of the water course it seemed like there were people straight out of a James Bond movie, rescue divers wearing scuba gear streaking across the water on their jet skis. Fortunately, there wasn’t the need of any rescues, but occasionally inflatable pylons were clipped by planes and each time a team of experts raced off to fix them. It seemed like in just three or four minutes the things were standing back up again.
It’s not just the spectators that find the operations of the air race interesting. The 12 race pilots had a chance to take a behind the scenes tour in Porto, Portugal, the previous race venue. Their tour of the race track and race compound showed them everything from safety advances that make the pylons easier to burst open to the high-tech innovations with high-definition and slow-motion television images along with the sophisticated timing devices. The pilots were so intrigued and had so many questions that the scheduled 90-minute tour turned into a 3-hour visit.
Back in Perth, in front of a crowd estimated at more than 150,000, Paul Bonhomme, a British pilot won the last race of the season. His victory placed him second in the overall Red Bull World Championship with 54 points. Finishing the course in just 1:17.78 in his Edge 540 he beat Lamb by 1.90 sec in the final. The Red Bull Air Race World Championship title was won with 61 points by Austrian, Hannes Arch. He had reached the semifinal in all eight events during 2008 and is the first European to win the covered air title. Arch is just in his second season in the Red Bull Air Races.
The Americans finished the 2008 season with Kirby Chambliss in 3rd place, Mike Mangold in 4th and Michael Goulian in 10th place. To even be in the list of 12 international all star pilot line up is enviable. Michael had some incredible flights during the season, posting the fastest time of 1:11.39 in the final training session for the Red Bull Air Race in Budapest. He was later eliminated from the Budapest event finals. Michael hit a pylon in the London race and didn’t finish his run and suffered a couple of disappointing position penalty calls in other 2008 races. You can see what it feels like to fly 200 mph and hit and air gate at his website: http://mikegoulian.com
Michael Goulian trains for the last race of the 2008 Red Bull season.
Photo by Andy Schaad
I’ve seen Michael fly in person and his edgy, crisp, and aggressive style of aerobatic flying always captivates fans. You can’t stop watching his well planned extreme performances. His passion for aviation, pursuit of excellence and focus on safety shows up in each of his performances. He makes the difficult seem easy.
Our hats off to all three American Red Bull Air Race pilots who raced a gruelling international circuit with only fractions of a second standing between them and their competitors. If you spot their names on an Air Show venue, make it a point to attend the event. There are few pilots in the American Aerobatic community that will serve up the kind of fast paced, hard charging, safe performance that these three champions deliver.
By John Cilio - You can contact John: questions@vintageflyer.com
Photo Credit: Danial Grund