WINDSOR, Ontario – American Kirby Chambliss confirmed on Wednesday that he has ordered an Edge V3 airplane, raising the stakes in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship as he will become the fourth pilot to acquire the state-of-the-art airplane.
“Nobody knows about it yet but, yes, I just decided to order it and we should have it hopefully in December,” Chambliss said, confirming the acquisition of the plane that with its modifications will cost about (U.S.) $500,000 “We might as well confirm it now because everyone else will find out about it soon enough. Obviously it’s a better plane. It’s a little slicker, a little cleaner. I don’t know if it’s a whole lot better than the Edge we have now. But it’s definitely better.”
Austria’s Hannes Arch has been flying the first V3 in the Red Bull Air Race this year and the plane’s performance has impressed not only Chambliss but other pilots as well. Germany’s Matthias Dolderer has already ordered a V3 and is expected to be flying in the V3 this season as is Canada’s Pete McLeod, hoping to get the third V3 when it rolls off the assembly line in Oklahoma this season as well.
Chambliss had earlier placed an option on the V3. He said he decided shortly after the last race in Rio de Janeiro to exercise that option. “I got the chance to see how it’s doing this year and decided to order it,” Chambliss said. “It’s also for simplicity’s sake. You can take it apart a lot faster, about four hours faster.”
Chambliss said that the plane is also cleared for hitting G-forces above 12g. The V3’s limit is 12.5g whereas his current Edge has to be taken apart and inspected whenever he exceeds the 12g limit for even a fraction of a second. That has been an extraordinarily time-consuming process for his technician Jason Resop in the past each time the Edge went even 12.1g for even a split second. It would take him many hours to take the plane apart, have it inspected and then put it back together.
“One other good thing about it is you can go to 12.5g,” Chambliss said. “That’s a good thing for me instead of just the 12g limit. When we get an over-g that’s under 12.5, we’ll just go ‘So what?’ That’ll save Jason a lot of time. We got 12.1 or 12.2 last year a couple of times and I mean, c’mon! We had to do an inspection every time even though there was nothing wrong with the plane.”
