Red Bull Air Race introduces revolutionary ‘G-Race Suit’ to provide extra protection for pilots The Red Bull Air Race World Championship will be making aviation history on Friday when most of the 15 pilots will be wearing a new high-tech flight suit that will enable them to cope better with the high G-forces they are subjected to when racing. Using state-of-the-art technology, the tight-fitting G-Race Suit contains special liquid-filled tubes which change shape under G-Forces, contracting the special non-stretch fabric and putting pressure on the lower extremities of the body to ensure that oxygen-rich blood remains in the head. This together with interactive muscle straining and breathing techniques provides the pilot with maximum G-protection.The suit, which has been in development for the unique requirements of the Red Bull Air Race for more than a year, will be used for the first time at the 2009 season-opener in Abu Dhabi. Red Bull Air Race’s Research & Development team in Salzburg has worked with AUTOFLUG GmbH, a German firm specialising in supplying rescue and safety technology. Anti-G suits existed since the 1940s but the revolutionary new design of the G-Race Suit is a G protection system for special use in race aircraft. It is based on the more recent LIBELLE G-Multiplus ®; a liquid filled full-body anti-G-Suit that is also used by fighter pilots. The name LIBELLE derives from the German word for ‘dragonfly’ and was chosen because it is based on the same principle that protects dragonflies from the 30-G acceleration forces the insect generates in flight. The aim of the G-Race Suit is to help shield Red Bull Air Race pilots from the debilitating forces that can reach up to 12G, if only briefly, when they are manoeuvring their planes between the Air Gates and particularly during the high speed turns around the track. Prototypes of the custom-fit G-Race Suits were developed over the past year and several of the Red Bull Air Race pilots took part in the testing using a centrifugal G-force simulator reaching forces of up to 9Gs at the Luftwaffe’s Koenigsbrueck Air Medical Centre near Dresden. "The system can provide instantaneous G-force protection for the race pilot thanks to the revolutionary design which will give the pilots a new tool in the battle against G-forces," says Red Bull Air Race’s Dirk Eckhardt, who leads the project
Normally, an increase in G-forces causes blood to flow from a pilot’s brain towards his feet. With the G-Race Suit, four liquid-filled tubes – called “Fluid Muscles” - cause the non-stretch fabric to contract the instant that G-forces occur. That way oxygen-rich blood stays in the pilot’s upper body and head instead of rushing downwards. No extra regulators or switches as used in conventional pneumatic anti-G suits are needed. The pilots use special muscle flexing techniques in order to get the maximum protection out of the G-Race Suit. “The goal is to further optimise the already high safety standards of the Red Bull Air Race. We want to find a way to help the pilots keep their focus on flying and on the sport itself and reduce the distracting effects of high Gs,” said Eckhardt. Even though the pilots have in the past been able to fly safely without a special suit, the Red Bull Air Race Research & Development team is always looking for new and innovative ways to make various parts of the race even safer and the development of the G-Race Suit is the latest example of those efforts. “The Red Bull Air Race prides itself on its 100 percent safety record and our philosophy has always been to stay at the cutting edge of technology. The G-Race Suit is a state-of-the-art system that has never before been made available for civilian use,” said Heinz Moeller, Director of Aviation. “We’re excited about making aviation history with the new G-Race Suit and taking aviation safety to the next level.”
