World-champion pilot defies death in the Red Bull Air Race

World champion air race pilot
Kirby Chambliss

Look up in the sky – it’s the Red Bull Air Race! For the first time ever in Panama, the skies over the Amador Causeway will be used as airspace for a flashy air show sponsored by the energy drink, Red Bull. World champion air race pilot Kirby Chambliss will push the limits of speed in his Edge 540T plane in what is being called “Formula One of the Air.” The event will be at 12:00 pm on Sunday, April 20 and the public is invited to enter the Figali Marina in front of Figali Convention Cent-er to see the show. Admission is free.

Called “Red Bull Alas Sobre Amador” - wings over Amador – the show will be a test run for Chambliss in preparation for the Red Bull Air Race World Series in San Diego on May 3 and 4 . The world champion high-speed pilot will maneuver a 1.5 km course of inflatable “air gates” some 20 meters high, twisting, turning and defying physics just a few meters above sea level.

“My team and I are excited to visit Panama City for the first time. I think it will be an excel-lent location for a Red Bull Air Race,” said Chambliss about his visit here. Spectators are sure to be equally excited to watch the champion pilot sustain 10 Gs of force at up to 450 km per hour in the skies over Panama Bay.

Maneuvering the course at a Red Bull
Air Race in London.

Chambliss has been flying since he was 13 and became the youngest commercial pilot at the airline he worked for when he was just 24. He became a captain at 28 and soon began polishing his aerobatic techniques which led him to become the 2006 Red Bull Air Race World Series champion as well as five other aero-acro-batic championships worldwide.