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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 VelocciMay/June 2007 , Page 86
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On a crystal-clear, windless Texas day in April, Charles Aaron’s BO-105 helicopter hovers 500 feet in the sky and begins to climb, spinning in circles from left to right. At the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station below, hundreds of eyes fix on him as the spinning stops and the chopper flips over backward. The crowd gasps. Just as quickly, Aaron brings the helicopter upright, a big smile on his face. Virtually no one in the audience had ever seen a whirlybird perform a stunt like that and with good reason. Aaron is unique in his position (or at least the various positions he maneuvers his chopper into): He’s the only pilot in the United States licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to perform aerobatics in a helicopter. This accomplishment required two years of negotiations with the FAA as well as manufacturers. “Others have done some aerobatics with helicopters,” he acknowledges, “but not to the extremes we’re doing.” Aaron’s stunt-copter career began two years ago, when he sold a helicopter to Dietrich Mateschitz, inventor of the energy drink Red Bull. Much as you’d expect from a company that positions itself as an adrenaline-peddler, Red Bull sponsors a number of hair-raising activities each year, from skydiving exhibitions to motocross races. Yet the events most in line with the credo of the company and its patriarch — “Red Bull gives you wings” — naturally occur in the sky.
Since last receiving FAA approval in September, Aaron has performed helicopter aerobatics for Red Bull at air shows and sporting events such as Nascar. He’s done loops and rolls alongside the Blue Angels and the Air Force Thunderbirds, and he travels extensively. “We go coast to coast, so I’ve gotten to fly the helicopter from one side of the country to the other,” he says.
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