For three days, the world’s best pilots will gather on the Croisette for a historic event, the first ever organized in France.
The 14 elite pilots of the Red Bull Air Race are meeting for the second leg of the 2018 season. Veteran, hopeful, challenger, former fighter pilot, they are all there for the victory.
For the first time in the competition’s history, the world’s best aerobatic pilots will weave their paths over the waters of the Bay of Cannes, a city whose experience in the aeronautics field is well established. It is at the controls of their planes, capable of reaching 370 km/h, between 25 m air-filled pylons, and under the forces of up to 12G (12 times their body weight) that they will showcase their range of skills, combining speed, precision, and risk management.
Three French pilots are competing in the premier category, the Master Class, which was dominated last year by the Japanese pilot Yoshihide Muroya: Mikael Brageot, Nicolas Ivanoff, and Franรงois Le Vot. Two others are racing in the Challenge Cup, a sort of second division bringing together aspiring champions: Baptiste Vignes and Mรฉlanie Astles, the first woman to join the circuit in 2016 who won the last race of the 2017 season in Indianapolis last October.
