Fatigue testing
expertise about stress, fatigue and
reliability. He says, “Referencing the long
flight history of all the aircraft
participating in the Air Race is a great
way to ensure continued reliability. And if
one of the aircraft has an issue that could
adversely affect its airworthiness, all of
the other aircraft of the same make are
immediately inspected for verification
that the found issue does not affect more
members of the fleet.”
PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
With the focus of engineers on
performance, the margins of the results
are getting smaller and smaller. At the
2019 season opener, the margin of the
win was just 0.003 seconds. Gilmore says,
“The teams are constantly looking for an
edge, and in that search they resource a
broad range of high-level expertise. The
sport continues to spark many
innovations, particularly solutions for
streamlining aerodynamic design,
reducing drag and saving weight. This
includes modified wing tips and winglets,
canopies and vertical stabilizers.
“We strictly control and limit any
modifications to the airframe structure
2 // A technician inspects Michael Goulian’s
race airplane during the fourth stage of the
Red Bull Air Race World Championship in
Gdynia, Poland
3 // Jim Reed, Red Bull Air Race’s technical
director, works on an airplane during a
training session
2 3
265mph
Top speed of Red Bull
Air Race aircraft
itself and changes in materials these days
are generally limited to weight savings
efforts. But you do see teams
incorporating titanium on many
components to help with weight savings.”
PRIVATE FLYING
When Red Bull announced the Air Race
would end after this year’s season, the
future of competitive sports planes
suffered a severe blow in terms of
innovation. Nevertheless, there are
developments within private and general
aviation, driven by aerobatic performers
at air shows and enthusiasts keen to push
the boundaries of flight as a hobby.
RED BULL RACE PLANE: MXS-R
The MXS-R is made entirely of carbon
fiber and was designed using the latest
simulation and modeling to rival the
Total fuel capacity: 58 US Gallons
Max full aerobatic airspeed: 265mph
Niklas Anderberg, is CEO of Swedish ultralight sports
aircraft-maker Blackwing, which is based in Eslöv,
southern Sweden. Anderberg founded the company in
2011, after growing frustrated with the corporate culture
he had experienced within his career at companies such
as Saab and Boeing. Large engineering companies, he
says, tend to compartmentalize engineers into working
on a single specific aspect of an aircraft, whereas he
wanted to “work across all different parts of the aircraft
and disciplines”.
Instead, Anderberg, who specializes in FEA (finite
element analysis) and CFD (computational fluid
dynamics) simulation and is also a pilot, decided to
follow his dream. “I designed my first aircraft in 2001. I’d
always dreamt of building my own plane, since I was five
or six years old,” he says.
Blackwing was founded with two other people, one
focused on developing the composites that the aircraft is
Edge 540
Length: 6.1m
Wingspan: 7.32m
Empty weight: 1260lbs
Maximum g: ±14g
Climb rate: 3,500ft/min
4 // The Blackwing aircraft
has VLA simplified Part 23
certification
4
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