Watched the Red Bull airraces on Discovery Wings the other day and this raised a few questions .
1.How will the series develope past the initial spectacle?
2.Will the series be a spring board for aircraft design or will it stagnate into an advert for Extras?
3.Are there any biplanes that could be competative or would that require a seperate class?
I wish the series the greatest success as it is refreshing to see aviations horizons expanded so to speak, however I fear it may fizzle out as tv coverage seams lacking this year.
By: Paul F - 8th December 2006 at 09:34
Although it has been good to see the air-races (albeit very much “editted highlights”) on mainstream terrestial TV here in UK, I suspect the novelty will soon wear off for most of the casual viewers.
Where as they can all perhaps dream of driving an F1 racing car while we sit in traffic quees on their local main road, few of tham can probably identify with the experience of flying in sort of high performance aircraft they see on the airrace programs – the closest experience most viewers will get is sat in the rear end of an airliner. Thus their “identification” with the air-racing experience is probably minimal – expect perhaps via the gaming software advertised at the top of some of these fora pages?
While there may be some (many?) viewers who watch the show from a gladiatorial viewpoint – i.e. hoping for a spectacular “incident”, most must realise that any such disaster would (hopefully!) be edittted out.
Thus, I do not think the show will hold many viewers beyond a couple of years/series before viewers get bored and move on “once you’ve seen one plane fly between a few inflatable pylons, you’ve seen them all, yawn“. At that point RB will pull the sponsership plug.
Unless, of course, they can inject something new into the show/series’ format – and these changes will have to be very obvious to the average viewer, and not fine-tuning tweaks that only the real aviation specialist can spot/understand. Maybe they could sponser the Reno Unlimited Gold race – very different ‘planes and a very different race format, the absolute “b@lls out” aspect of unlimited racing might hold viewers attention for another series or two?
It will be ashame when RB pull the plug, but at least it’s given us something on the TV to look forward to for a change.
Paul F
By: SimonH - 7th December 2006 at 23:46
Having attended the last 2 Races at San Francisco, the infrastructure and advertising has to be seen to be believed, and everything is carted around the world from race to race – a serious financial commitment by any standard.
No different to F1 then. Then again, probably cheaper to run than F1 (a lot cheaper!) and it attracts bigger crowds than F1 (much bigger!) so product exposure to more people for less dosh, i’d say the F1 team was in more danger of being axed. The only way that F1 beats it is in the amount of TV exposure it gets.
What ever you may think Mike, the RB infrastructure is tiny compared to what the F1 circus carts around the globe, and the RB kit is probably comparable to a major rock band doing a world Stadium tour.
The Red Bull Air Race series is still in its infancy and its Peter Besenyei’s baby. If RB pull the plug on it there would be a queue of potential sponsors who would jump at the chance of getting the sort of exposure RB have had. For what it has cost RB to sponsor the air race series they could have had a very nice sticker on the nose cone of the F1 Ferrari 😉
By: BlueRobin - 7th December 2006 at 21:07
1. Hard to say. That’s up to the race organiser like F1 to develop the rules in order to maintain interest.
2. I recall people mvoing to Edge in preference to Extra. This could be seen as the first move to achieving better performance. Whether it spourns new aircraft types is doubtful unless Air Racing really kicks off and attracts mass sponsorship.
3. Bipes have another wing therefore more induced and parasite drag. Another class or classes for the same event would be fun. 🙂
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December 7, 2006 at 8:05 pm