Home | Travel | Barcelona -> Book Itinerary Picture Tour
barcelona book

Red Bull Air Race 2009 at Barcelona

It was a great show, only 4 people were competed today and only 1 won the race. If you were not here to see the final, the 4 pilots were:

  • Paul Bonhomme
  • Hannes Arch
  • Matt Hall
  • Mike Mangold

Hannes Arch (52 points) was the world champion 2008 because for 2009, Paul Bonhomme is the world champion. Not only he won this title but also, he won the race with 55 points. Matt Hall (33 points) got the 3rd place and Mike Mangold (31 points) got the 4th place.

Update October 4, 2009

The first weekend of october, Barcelona will organize the air festival which will celebrate the 90 years of the arrival of the first commercial plane in this city. If you are the chance to be there on october 3-4, you will see the Red Bull Air Race which will take place in front of the maritime beach at 13h.

In the morning, you can see the plane exhibition but you will have to go to Sabadell, a town in the outskirts of Barcelona, which will organize its 2nd International Air Meeting.

On october 2-3-4, go to its fira and airport place to discover historic planes, to watch shows, to try the plane simulator and much more.

Everything started in 1919 when Pierre-Georges Latécoère created his airplane company by buying french bombers (Bréguet XIV model) and adapted them for the postal air transport. By this way, he inaugurated the first flight between Toulouse (France) and Barcelona (Spain).

And now, those first small planes made of wood and fabric have been changed to big planes made of steel and fabric and for majority of us, the favorite way of travelling but also to transport goods to great distance and speed.

barcelona

It was not before 1992 that the city started to do exhibitions of radio-controlled flight and its success has pushed the participation of the Aero Club Barcelona-Sabadell in this spectacle the following year. Years after years, this event grew up so much that other organizations and companies have been involved as the spanish air force, the french air force, international civil and military participants… Just to let you know that before this date, the exhibition consisted of kites only.

What you can see in the fira and airport of Sabadell ???

A lot of planes as you can guess but particularly models as:

  • Antonov 2, Douglas DC3, North American T-6 Texan… (historic planes)
  • Breitling Jet Team, HA-220 Super Saeta, Reactor Alphajet… (jet planes)
  • MBB BO10, Eurocopter EC120B Colibrí… (helicopters)
  • Airbus 320 Vueling, Airbus 320 Spanair… (commercial planes)

Some participants as:

  • Renaud Ecalle with Extra 330SC (champion of the world of acrobatics)
  • François Lévot with Extra 300L (3rd best acrobatic pilot of the world)

And of course acrobatic, parachute… spectacles.

But the big event is the Red Bull Air Race which should start on october 3rd at 13h until 19h and the final, the next day at 17h.

15 pilots will compete against the clock in a circuit built by inflatable pillars. They will get penalties if they will take wrong angle, touch pillars, pass too high or too low for example. The 4 slower have to compete again and the one who will do the best time will pass the next tour.

The 12 of the 2nd tour will flight and only 8 pilots can go to the next tour called “Super 8”. At the end, for the final tour called “Final 4”, only 4 pilots can pretend to get the first podium. The winner will be announced just after that all of them will have completed their round.

Except for the score that each pilot will get, the one who will do the best time will get an extra point.

Where to go ???

For the race, just go to the beach section between “nova icaria” (passeig maritim de la nova icaria) and “nova mar bella” (passeig maritim de la nova mar bella).

barcelona

For the fira and airport of Sabadell, you have to go to its official website to print the free invitation and of course, you will find all needed information.

September 25, 2009