Private Air & Private AirMart | Gunning With The Bulls pg. 2

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Red Bull : Gunning With The Bulls

Flaming wings, spinning choppers, crazy mid-air acrobatics: Just what are Dietrich Mateschitz’s fearless pilots drinking up there?

By: Cristina Velocci
May/June 2007 , Page 86

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Gunning With The Bulls pg. 2

Aaron isn’t the only one whose passion for flying has been fueled by Red Bull. In Italy, five former members of the Italian Air Force’s infamous Frecce Tricolori make up the Red Bulls, the country’s first and only civilian aerobatic team. Flying nearly wing-to-wing, the group pilots Sukhoi SU-29s at speeds up to 280 mph at national and international air shows.

In the U.S., pilot Bill Reesman has become the world’s only nighttime jet-fighter pyrotechnic act, the Red Bull Meteor. Five hundred feet above ground, Reesman soars through the night skies in a 1960s Russian MiG with flames rising 1,000 feet high off each wing — the effect mimicking a shooting star, and visible up to 30 miles away.

Though it seems such spectacles could be conceived only by an overcaffeinated mind zonked on a sugar rush, their true beginnings were sparked instead by passion. It started with Austrian pilot — and Mateschitz flying instructor — Siegfried Angerer, who collects and restores vintage aircraft. In the ’80s, he bought a former military training aircraft, a 1954 T-28B — an acquisition that was the first in a long line of operational historical aircraft. Soon after, he purchased a Vought F4U-4 Corsair and a B-25J Mitchell. By 1999, Angerer’s collection numbered four classics — more than his Innsbruck base could accommodate. Mateschitz, a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot himself, recognized an opportunity to combine business with pleasure and did for Angerer what he would do for so many other pilots in the years to come: He gave him wings — 10 new sets, to be exact.

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In 2001, Mateschitz formed the first of his Red Bull–branded aviation programs, the Flying Bulls Aerobatics Team, placing Angerer at the helm of the crew. Today, Angerer serves as its head pilot, managing a fleet that includes a Cessna CE 208 Amphibian Caravan, Pilatus PC-6, three Alpha Jets and four helicopters, plus Angerer’s original four planes. To house all these historic aircraft, Mateschitz constructed the sleek, modern Hangar 7, built of 1,754 plates of glass.

Just a cab ride from Salzburg Airport’s main terminal, “7” has become a hip destination spot since its 2003 opening. Visiting is like “being a part of aviation as a scene,” says Greg Nevolo, head of Red Bull’s North American aviation marketing. Guests can dine at the restaurant Ikarus or sip a cocktail at the Threesixty bar while taking in views of the Austrian Alps and, most importantly, the restored, functional flying beauties below their feet (the hangar’s floors are transparent).

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