Oshkosh EAA 2024 - Red Bull Helicopter flies upside down

All right now ladies and gentlemen I want you to take a look to the left as we bring to show center a guy we call Fitz. It's Aaron Fitzgerald in the aerobatic BO-105 helicopter performing maneuvers in this chopper that would even keep Igor Sikorsky up at night. This type of flying has made Aaron Fitzgerald one of the only few people in the world who are qualified to perform helicopter aerobatics. Without getting too incredibly technical helicopters have flapping hinges and leading lag hinges and pilots are always worried about what is known as a retreating blade stall and this BO-105 that we're seeing has a couple of important features that make it suitable for the type of flying we're seeing right now. One of which is a solid titanium rotor head that gives it a rigid system without any flexing. The other is that Aaron has in fact moved the center of gravity back a bit to make this fairly unstable aircraft even more so to perform maneuvers just like that one. Some really fun facts I had the opportunity to talk with Aaron Fitzgerald and he gave me a little bit of a tour inside of the cockpit so a few other differences than a regular helicopter is that there's an accelerometer that indicates both positive and negative g's so during the performance Aaron will hold at about quarter negative g's and also two to 2.8 positive g's during the show. The other unique feature is he has an arrestee card and that's basically the aerobatics that he is performing here it's a card in there and although he travels across North America performing he still checks in with that card every time. The other really incredible thing is you'll notice the smoke system it is different than most smoke systems where the oil flows through the exhaust. This is something where the Red Bull helicopter has a pyrotechnic smoke system where Aaron hits a switch that's like a magnesium match that fires an electrical pulse from the panels. Pretty cool stuff as Aaron goes through a maneuver he calls the emmelflip with a flip and an ailment combined as he comes by show center once again. Let's give Aaron Fitzgerald a big round of applause again rolling that helicopter doing things strictly that are just unnatural but does so with great finesse. We bring now back to the stage that of Aaron Fitzgerald for a little more flying in the bow 105. This is a German built helicopter for the 1500 of these have been produced in the first flight of the time in fact took flight back in 1967 and it's very popular as an aeromedical air platform and has also used in military service around the world as well. Aaron Fitzgerald the guy who grew up at a nearby U.S. Forest Service tanker base and as a kid watching those airplanes and helicopters go overhead to fight fires and that's something that Aaron Fitzgerald does as well in some privately owned civilian black helicopters. And of course turning on a dime and giving you eight and a half cents change in this helicopter the bow 105. Aaron Fitzgerald in fact the only guy in the world to hold an aerobatic statement of aerobatic competencies because that part at the surface level helicopter flying. Brittany I have no clue what that maneuver was but it was cool. One of his favorite maneuvers is both turns. Now if you're curious something that fascinates me is the helicopter is a 1985 helicopter and as Aaron Fitzgerald says it is well built and it's over engineered. Also if you have the opportunity to talk to Aaron Fitzgerald here at EAA Oshkosh one of the unique factors is his helmet painted in the iconic red bull theme. On the back of it he has thing one and thing two. He says it brings him just a little bit of luck. Absolutely incredible. What do you think ladies and gentlemen let's make some noise for Aaron Fitzgerald and the bow 105. He's going to circle around and give you a great photo opportunity and give you a bit of a bow for the bow.