(no audio) Red Bull Bo-105 CBS Helicopter Aircraft Information
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Many people are surprised to learn that Red Bull’s high performance aerobatic routine is actually performed by a stock helicopter, the BO-105 CBS made by Eurocopter/Messerschmitt Boelkow Blohm (MBB). It uses two 425 hp Allyson Rolls Royce C-20B turbine engines that drive composite rotor blades mounted to a solid titanium fixed rotor head. The normal versions can be configured for a variety of flight operations from air ambulance to off shore oil drilling support.

What makes Red Bull’s BO-105 CBS different from any of the others are the man inside—Charles "Chuck" P. Aaron, the only pilot licensed in the United States by the Federal Aviation Administration to perform aerobatics in a helicopter, and its classifications as an experimental aircraft. The experimental category enables the pilot to push the envelope of an aircraft’s own flight capabilities.

"Originally, it scared me to death!" Aaron says with a huge smile. "I’d seen airplanes do loops and rolls and back flips, but not helicopters!" After a couple of years of experimentation, often with Eurocopter’s factory test pilot instructor, Rainer Wilke in the seat beside him, Aaron found ways to tease aerobatics out of the BO-105 CBS that were previously unimagined.

PERMISSION GRANTED

In order to perform demonstrations at public events, Aaron’s helicopter underwent a complete engineering analysis in compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration. Engineers gathered and studied a labyrinth of test data. Ultimately, they stood with the answers they were looking for:

The Eurocopter BO-105 CBS could carry a load of positive 3.1 Gs and negative 1.0 Gs and Red Bull had a new flight demonstration phenomenon.

The approval process cleared the way to further explore the BO-105 CBS aerobatic envelope. In addition to the loops and rolls, Aaron now could make the helicopter go through almost the entire regimen of maneuvers previously reserved for fixed wing aircraft. The Split-S, Immelman, Half Cuban Eight and even the challenging Lomcevak, slightly modified by Aaron for the helicopter, were all possible. "I ended up having a maneuver named after me," he grins. "It’s called the Chuckcevak!"

"Generally, people absolutely can’t believe what they’re seeing," Aaron laughs. "How can a helicopter go upside down and flip over backwards and do all those crazy things?’ The answer is really quite simple: This is flying according to Red Bull.