Red Bull Air Race - New York City - June 19 - 20 2010

Today, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, fifteen pilots will be flying lightweight, 1200-pound planes up to 230 miles per hour through inflatable, 65-foot-tall floating pylons on a 3 mile track on the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. The event is part of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship, which attracts millions of spectators worldwide, and is expected to bring in thousands of people this weekend.

Organizers anticipate hiring up to 2500 locals to help them staff the event, and expect it could inject up to $45 million into the area's economy. The mayor of Jersey City, the location of the viewing grandstand, says today's qualifying round and tomorrow's final-which will be seen in over 200 countries- are a great way to put the "Garden State" on the map, saying, "it's a great way for us to show the rest of the world what we have here in Jersey City and the state of New Jersey. It's a great place to invest, it's a great place to do business."

The pilots are from all over the world, including two Americans. One of them, Michael Goulian, says that even though the planes are flying at super speeds just a few meters above the river, he isn't worried about his safety. He says, "I'm not nervous or anything else, it's just a matter of you going out there with a job to do and flying it as absolutely perfectly as you can."

The other American in the race, Kirby Chambliss, is normally a Southwest Airlines pilot. Chambliss says, "It's a fantastic experience, I mean you are going 230 miles per hour, you're pulling 12 g's like it's a house sitting on your chest, it's hard to breathe but the adrenalin is pumping, it's exciting." Unlike at his day job, you can expect Chambliss to leave the 'fasten seat-belt' sign turned on for the entire flight.

Category:

Sports

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• Red
• Bull
• Air
• Race
• New
• York
• City
• airplanes
• helicopter
• aircraft
• boats
• aviation
• motor sports
• engine
• high speed