Airplanes flying at 230 miles per hour at 82 feet above ground, a precision of a few inches, 12G acceleration, slaloms, loops, curves and a stopwatch... These are the ingredients of the Redbull Air Race that I invite you to discover through a series of articles decorated with photos taken in Cannes (South of France).
A World Championship of Air Racing
The Redbull Air Race is therefore a series of air races where 14 teams compete against each other, each using a plane with the same engine. Eight races make up the championship which takes place across the globe. The race always takes place over a body of water, be it the bay of a coastal town or a large lake. Thus, for this article, we will focus on the Cannes event of the 2018 edition... which, unfortunately, was the last complete edition.
The goal of this race is quite simple: the pilots follow a track marked out by inflatable pillars. In order to classify them, they are timed and must therefore achieve the best possible time. But it's not just a question of passing in front of the pillars, they must also hold particular positions and altitudes for each type of pylon as we are going to see.
Watchmaker's precision at the speed of the high-speed train
Thus, for the slalom, the aircraft must be perfectly vertical, with the cockpit oriented towards the pillar it is passing in front of:
As you can see, the wings are perfectly straight. Moreover, the pilot has to keep the aircraft between the upper and lower red marks and align the cockpit with the central mark... And the space between the extreme marks corresponds exactly to the length of the wings of the aircraft (we will talk about the wingspan of the aircraft) ... We can say that respecting these marks is nothing less than high art !... Imagine driving at 230 miles per hour on the motorway (hello fines...) and having to go through the tollgate at that speed... That's exactly what these pilots do, without the speed cameras !
And the position of the aircraft is all the more important because if the pilot does not pass the pylon perfectly vertically, he gets a penalty. If he doesn't pass between the red marks and the cockpit perfectly in the centre, he also gets a penalty.
Once through the slalom, the pilot flies through the gate. When passing through the gate, the pilot must keep his wings horizontal and position himself at the centre mark.
Here again, an error in the positioning or alignment and the pilot receives a penalty... Accuracy is less than three feet!
Then comes the turning. As in the slalom, the pilot stands vertically, perfectly centered, and turns by pulling on the stick.
An acceleration equivalent to a rocket at takeoff...
Quite impressive... But the hardest part comes at the end of the run, which ends with a vertical ascent and a turnaround in which the pilot is accelerated up to 12G. He then feels 12 times the mass of his own body. This turnaround occurs because the driver's back is to the finish gate at this point in the race. He must therefore turn around as quickly as possible after reaching a certain altitude set by the rules. He then descends in a nose-down dive to put the aircraft back flat and pass the gate at half height, perfectly horizontal... And all this without counting that if he exceeds 12G, the pilot is disqualified and the aircraft inspected: safety above all. Why is the 12G limit a difficulty? Because during this loop, pilots reach 11.5G very easily! The error margin is therefore very low...
And so, ends the first part of the series of articles dedicated to the Redbull Air Race. So, I leave you with the moon going with one of the paratroopers on the red bull team.
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