Just two days after his strong result at the Red Bull Air Race in Windsor (CAN), Matthias Dolderer is working hard to prepare for a successful second half of the season. The 39 year-old German completed first test flights in his new race plane, an Edge 540 V3 produced by American manufacturer Zivko Aeronautics. Race debut will be next week (19th/20th of June) in New York City at the fifth stop of the World Championship 2010.
OKLAHOMA (USA). „It’s a big moment to fly a new airplane straight off the production line“, says Matthias Dolderer, who picked up Volkswagen as a main sponsor of the team a couple of weeks ago. „First test flights went well. The airplane seems faster, but we won’t know until we get it on the race track. I’m confident that we can finish on top.“
„The aerodynamics are much better than my current Edge and there’s less weight on-board. Now, we can move the weight around and alter the centre of gravity. This can affect the flight characteristics quite a lot. It took over 4000 man-hours to complete the V3. On top of this, we have a new Ly-Con engine with more horsepower“, explains Dolderer.
Although the V3 – Version 3 - looks like a complete new design, it is an evolution of the well-proven Edge 540. Eric Zivko, vice president of Zivko Aeronautics: „Structurally, the V3 is the same as its predecessor, but cosmetically and aerodynamically it’s 65 per cent different. The fuselage and the wingtips are new, the landing gear is shorter and we optimized the cockpit layout. The V3 is purely made for racing.“
The V3 doesn’t fulfill only the needs of the pilot but also those of the team technician. It used to take one day to take the Edge apart to transport it to the next race location. Now the technician’s job takes no longer than a few hours. Unlike his old Edge, Dolderer’s V3 is now painted in snow white. “So I’ve got a new girlfriend and am switching from a redhead to a blonde,” jokes Matthias Dolderer.
Its race debut will be next week at the Red Bull Air Race in New York City. „The plane is nearly ready to race“, Dolderer says. „We have to do some smaller modifications and fine-tune the plane. Additionally, we’ll install the telemetry equipment. We’re on schedule for New York. It will be a thrilling race.“ |
