Michael Goulian | |
|---|---|
 Goulian in 2010 | |
| Born | September 4, 1968 |
| Nationality |  United States |
| Spouse | Karin Goulian |
| Website | mikegoulian.com |
Michael George "Mike" Goulian (born September 4, 1968 in Winthrop, Massachusetts) is an American aerobatic national champion aviator who raced in the Red Bull Air Race World Series under the number 99.
Goulian was born into an aviation business family, which founded Executive Flyers Aviation, one of the largest flying schools in the Northeastern United States in 1964. [1] Michael's father Myron Goulian (also known as "Mike") was an FAA examiner. Michael grew up by washing airplanes and sweeping the hangar floor. He learned to fly before he could drive a car and soloed in a Cessna 150 on his 16th birthday in 1984.
Inspired by the 1980 movie Cloud Dancer , [2] Goulian began his aerobatic training in 1985 during his pilot study. He then established an aerobatic school within Executive Flyers Aviation. While earning his living as a corporate airline pilot, Goulian worked his way toward the top ranks of air show display flying and competition aerobatics and became US National Champion in the Advanced Category at the age of 22, making him the youngest pilot ever to have won that competition. [3] In 1992, he was the top-ranked US male aerobatic pilot and Silver Medalist in the Unlimited Category, an achievement he repeated in 1993. In 1995, he became the US National Champion in the Unlimited Category. He was a member of the US Aerobatic Team in 1994, 1996 and 1998.
In 2006, Goulian was awarded the prestigious Art Scholl Memorial Award for airshow showmanship by the International Council of Airshows (ICAS).
Goulian is co-author of a series of books called Basic and Advanced Aerobatics, published by McGraw Hill, which became the industry standard for aerobatic flight training manuals.
He is the co-founder of two Bedford, Massachusetts, United States-based aviation companies: Linear Air, which offers air taxi services using very light jets and piston-powered aircraft, and Mike Goulian Aviation, which is a Cirrus aircraft training, management and rental company.
In 2021, AOPA named Goulian chairman of its Hat in The Ring Society, a philanthropic foundation that promotes aviation access, safety and education. [4]
He flies a Cirrus SR22T for his business and personal travels, [5] and is an avid skier, ice hockey player and golfer. He has been married to Karin Goulian since 2000, with whom he has one daughter: Emily (born 2006).
| Michael Goulian at the Red Bull Air Race World Series | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Points | Wins | Rank |
| 2004 |  DNP |  DNP | 4th | 3 | 0 | 6th | |||||||||
| 2006 |  6th |  9th |  5th |  CAN |  DNS | 4th | 5th | 5th |  6th | 11 | 0 | 5th | |||
| 2007 | 7th |  DNS | 11th | 7th | CAN |  6th | DNS | 9th |  9th | 9th |  CAN | 2nd | 6 | 0 | 8th |
| 2008 | 11th | 5th | 8th |  CAN |  7th | 11th | 8th | 6th | CAN | 10th | 16 | 0 | 8th | ||
| 2009 | 14th | 14th |  6th | 1st | 9th | 11th | 22 | 1 | 10th | ||||||
| 2010 | 4th | 11th | 8th | 6th | 7th | 13th | CAN | CAN | 24 | 0 | 9th | ||||
| Series not held between 2011 and 2013 | |||||||||||||||
| Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Points | Wins | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | DNS |  12th |  12th |  9th | 12th | 11th | 10th |  6th | 3 | 0 | 12th |
| 2015 | 12th |  6th | 4th | 11th | 9th | 7th | 9th | 6th | 13 | 0 | 10th |
| 2016 | 5th | 10th | 13th | 10th | 4th | 6th | 10th | CAN | 19.75 | 0 | 10th |
| 2017 | 6th | 8th | 5th | 12th | 3rd | 10th | 14th | 7th | 28 | 0 | 9th |
| 2018 | 1st |  3rd | 2nd | 4th | 2nd | 12th | 1st | 8th | 73 | 2 | 3rd |
| 2019 | 3rd | 21 | 3rd |
Legend:
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aeroplane" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment, and sport. Additionally, some helicopters, such as the MBB Bo 105, are capable of limited aerobatic manoeuvres. An example of a fully aerobatic helicopter, capable of performing loops and rolls, is the Westland Lynx.
Patty Wagstaff is an American aviator and U.S. national aerobatic champion.
The Extra Flugzeugbau EA300 is a two-seat aerobatic monoplane capable of Unlimited category competition. It was designed in 1987 by Walter Extra, a German aerobatic pilot, and built by Extra Flugzeugbau.
Walter Extra is a German award-winning aerobatic pilot and chief aircraft designer who founded the aerobatic aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau.
Kirby Chambliss is an American world champion aerobatic and air race pilot who raced in the Red Bull Air Race World Series under the Red Bull brand.
Michael Eugene Mangold was an American aviator whose career spanned the United States Air Force, commercial airlines, and aerobatics. Mangold competed in the Red Bull Air Race World Series from 2004 through 2009, where he repeatedly placed first and won the World Championship in the 2005 World Series, as well as the 2007 World Series. His nickname and call sign in the military was "Mongo".
Frank Versteegh is a Dutch aerobatics pilot. He is also an airshow organiser, a flight safety committee member, a FAI judge and a freestyle aerobatics competitor.
Alejandro "Álex" Maclean was a Spanish TV film producer and aerobatics pilot, who competed in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship under the number 36. Maclean was nicknamed "The Flying Matador".
Glen Dell was a South African commercial airline trainer and aerobatics pilot, who was qualified to race in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in seasons 2008 and 2009.
Sean Doherty Tucker is an American world champion aerobatic aviator. He was previously sponsored by the Oracle Corporation for many years, performing in air shows worldwide as "Team Oracle". Tucker has won numerous air show championship competitions throughout his career, was named one of the 25 "Living Legends of Flight" by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in 2003, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2008. He has led several efforts to assist youth in learning to fly or becoming involved in general aviation, and currently serves as co-chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles program, a role he has held since 2013.
Leo Loudenslager was an American aviator. He is one of two aviators to have won seven national aerobatic titles and is one of only three Americans to win the World Aerobatics Championship title.
Charlie Hillard was an American aerobatics pilot, and the first American to win the world aerobatics title.
Pete McLeod is a Canadian professional aerobatic pilot whose first competitive flight was in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in 2009.
Matthias Dolderer is a German professional race pilot. He is the 2016 champion of the Red Bull Air Race.
Matt Hall is a third-generation pilot, a former Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fighter combat instructor, international unlimited aerobatic competitor and the first Australian to be selected to compete in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship, starting in 2009. He won the championship in the final season of Red Bull Air Race in 2019.
Martin Šonka is a Czech aerobatics (unlimited) and a former fighter pilot in the Czech Air Force. He has raced in Red Bull Air Race World Championship since 2010, becoming the World Champion in the 2018 Red Bull Air Race World Championship season.
Neil Williams (1934–1977) was a Welsh aerobatics pilot.
Marion Cole (1924–2011) was an American Aerobatic pilot.
Rob Holland is a highly accomplished aerobatic pilot from the United States. currently residing in Nashua, New Hampshire. Holland is one of the most decorated aerobatic pilots in U.S. history, with an impressive list of accomplishments that includes multiple championship titles and groundbreaking innovations in the field of aerobatics.
Florian Bergér is German pilot. He is a co-pilot in Lufthansa and a pilot of the Challenger class of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship.
What did get his attention was seeing the 1980 movie "Cloud Dancer" about a world champion aerobatic pilot played by actor David Carradine.
"As a 17-year-old kid, that looked like an athletic thing in the sky, kind of a little dangerous, it looked cool," he said. "I started to take aerobatic lessons, and I just tell people I was too dumb to quit."
| Current pilots (Master) | |
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| Current pilots (Challenger) |
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| Former pilots | |
| International | |
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| National | |
