Yes, Helicopters Can Fly Upside Down—and the Red Bull Aerobatic Team Proved It
Last weekend, New Yorkers had to look twice, as the Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter practiced its maneuvers for the upcoming Memorial Day Bethpage Air Show in downtown Manhattan. Former US Serviceman Aaron Fitzgerald performed flips, barrel rolls and nose dives around the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park and West Side Highway.
The Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter, or the BO105 C, is the only helicopter fit for aerobatics. The original BO105 C was built in 1967 as the first lightweight helicopter in the world. The version you will see on Memorial Day Weekend at the Bethpage Air Show at Jones Beach was built in 1984 and used in the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico before joining The Flying Bulls, a group of aviation enthusiasts with a great passion for rare historical airplanes and helicopters. They restore and maintain a fleet of 22 planes and helicopters in the world and have played a significant role in the creation of Hangar‑7 in Salzburg, Austria. The Flying Bulls was created in 1999.
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The Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter can do all kinds of tricks—barrel rolls, loops, vertical climbs, nose dives and flip forward and backward. Skydivers from the Red Bull Air Force will join the helicopter for the air show. The Red Bull Air Force is a team of skydivers, BASE jumpers, wing-suit fliers and paraglider pilots.
The air show will feature Fitzgerald in the Red Bull Aerobatic Helicopter and the Red Bull skydivers doing their acrobatic thing for an eight-minute routine. Watch for the low-pull, high-performance canopy swoops by the skydiving humans in harmony with the spins, curls and dips by the aerobatic helicopter.
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