Sightings: AN AD CAMPAIGN WITH ENERGY

An ad campaign with energy, the Red Bull Air Race, dreamed up by marketers of the Austrian energy drink of the same name, is an eye-popping mix of aerobatic flying and auto racing (see “Red Bull’s Rodeo,” Apr./May 2005). Using the most agile, lightweight airplanes available, pilots navigate a “track” of 65-foot-high air-filled pylons at speeds reaching 230 mph, and at times pull 12 Gs. First held in Zeltweg, Austria, in 2003 before several hundred thousand spectators, the race soon went global. Last year, 12 world-class pilots touched down at eight locales in six countries, tallying points toward a year-end winner. The 2008 champ was rookie Hannes Arch of Austria. Clockwise from right: Paul Bonhomme goes vertical in an Edge 540 in London; Nigel Lamb in an MX2 and Kirby Chambliss and Alejandro MacLean in Edge 540s form up over Abu Dhabi; Alejandro MacLean goes over the top in an Edge 540 above Monument Valley, United States; and Mike Mangold stands on his tail in an Edge 540 at Rotterdam’s Erasmus Bridge (no, sorry, he didn’t go under it).