Air Race X will see pilots race at various global sites on a “tight and technical track” at speeds of up to 370km/h and maximum gravity acceleration of 12G, with the flight data then used to create virtual, augmented and mixed-reality images of the planes racing each other.
The five-seater Beechcraft Baron 58, registered VH-WQE, was enabled by a $1.8 million grant from the Federal Government, and will bolster Little Wings’ capacity to support sick children.
The report makes no findings about the crash at Caboolture Airfield in Queensland on 28 July but establishes the sequence of events that led to the accident which killed the Jabiru’s pilot David Maddern and his wife Jan Maddern.
The championship, to be held in Northam around 100km east of Perth from 2 to 9 September, is the first in five years and the first ever outside the Northern Hemisphere. Five Australians will compete including NSW’s Nicola Scaife, already a two-time world champion.
The report into the incident last year said balloon maker Kubicek Balloons made “incorrect assumptions” about a modification and didn’t then subsequently conduct the required test necessary to ensure it was safe.
The 63-year-old man was flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital with severe injuries after the plane crashed into the horse during takeoff on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula on Sunday.