Paul Bonhomme | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 22 September 1964 |
| Nationality | British |
| Website | teambonhomme.com https://www.facebook.com/teambonhomme55 |
Paul Bonhomme (born 22 September 1964) is a British aerobatic and commercial airline pilot and was owner/race pilot of Team Bonhomme, the Red Bull Air Race World Championship Team from 2003 to 2015.
Bonhomme was born into a family of aviators. His father was an airline pilot and his mother, who worked mostly as a nurse, did a stint as a stewardess in the late 50's. His brother is also commercial pilot.
Bonhomme's flying career started in 1980 at White Waltham Airfield as a general dogsbody by cleaning hangars, polishing aircraft and refuelling aircraft.
At age 18 he gained his Private Pilot Licence taking first the FAA licence at Redbird Airfield near Dallas, Texas and subsequently became a flight instructor. In 1985 he became an air taxi pilot and in 1987 joined Air Cymru, a Welsh charter airline, flying the Boeing 737. He now flies as a captain of Boeing 787s for British Airways.
His aerobatics career started in 1986, flying Richard Goode’s Pitts Special, the “Ultimate Pitts”. He went on to fly the Yak-50, Extra 300 and then the Sukhoi Su-26 in 1991 for Richard Goode Aerobatics. He has flown over 1000 public displays and flies vintage fighters for various companies including The Old Flying Machine Company and Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford Aerodrome and Air Leasing at Sywell.
Aircraft types Bonhomme has flown include the Supermarine Spitfire (MkI, MkV, MkVIII, MkIX, MkIXT, MkXI and MkXIV), Hawker Hurricane, P-40 Kittyhawk, F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F8F Bearcat, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-63 Kingcobra, Hawker Sea Fury, P-51 Mustang and AD-4 Skyraider.
Starting in 1994 he flew formation displays and competitions around the world with his colleague former Air Race pilot and Television commentator Steve Jones as "The Matadors". They won three gold medals and one silver medal in the FAI series. He has competed in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship from its inception in 2003 until 2015, achieving an unsurpassed record of 46 podium finishes out of 65 races that includes 19 race wins. He was the World Champion in 2009, 2010 and 2015
In 2010 Paul was awarded the Guild Sword of Honour by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
Bonhomme was the 2009 recipient of the Segrave Trophy. [1]
Bonhomme's other activities include helicopter instructing (when he can find time) and his latest and most prized enjoyment is gliding. He glides from the Cambridge Gliding Centre at Gransden Lodge (the most fantastic gliding airfield in the south of England). He is married with a stepson and three daughters, and lives in South Cambridgeshire, England.
 Paul Bonhommeat the Red Bull Air Race World Championship | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Points | Wins | Rank |
| 2003 |  3rd |  NC | 0 | 0 | NC | ||||||||||
| 2004 | 6th | 7th |  6th | 2 | 0 | 8th | |||||||||
| 2005 |  6th |  7th | 3rd |  3rd | 5th | 3rd | 5th | 17 | 0 | 5th | |||||
| 2006 | 7th |  8th |  6th |  CAN |  2nd | 2nd | 1st | 3rd |  2nd | 26 | 1 | 4th | |||
| 2007 | 3rd |  1st | 2nd | 2nd | CAN |  1st | 2nd | 3rd |  3rd | 1st |  CAN | 5th | 47 | 3 | 2nd |
| 2008 | 1st | 1st | 2nd |  CAN | 1st | 7th | 3rd | 10th | CAN | 1st | 54 | 4 | 2nd | ||
| 2009 | 2nd | 2nd |  1st | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 67 | 3 | 1st | ||||||
| 2010 | 1st | 3rd | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | CAN | CAN | 64 | 2 | 1st | ||||
| 2014 | 1st |  2nd |  5th |  5th | 1st | 5th | 7th | 5th | 51 | 2 | 3rd | ||||
| 2015 | 1st |  1st | 8th | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 2nd | 76 | 4 | 1st | ||||
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.
Steve Jones is a British airline and aerobatics pilot who competed in the Red Bull Air Race World Series, flying a Zivko Edge 540. He is now the championship's head judge.
Kermit Weeks is an American aviation enthusiast, pilot, and aircraft collector. He has competed in aerobatics, designed aircraft, and promoted aviation and vintage aircraft restoration.
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".
Klaus Schrodt is a German aviator who formerly raced in the Red Bull Air Race World Series. Before joining the series, Schrodt was an airline pilot and yachtsman.
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.
Raynham George Hanna, was a New Zealand-born fighter pilot who emigrated to England to join the Royal Air Force (RAF). During his RAF career he was a founding member of the Red Arrows aerobatics display team. He also founded The Old Flying Machine Company, which commercially flies Second World War vintage fighter aircraft at air displays around the world, and for television and cinematic productions. He was a Spitfire display pilot in the latter half of the 20th century, noted for his daring aerobatic stunt flying.
Nigel Lamb is an English aerobatics pilot and the 2014 Red Bull Air Race World Champion.
Michael George "Mike" Goulian is an American aerobatic national champion aviator who raced in the Red Bull Air Race World Series under the number 99.
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.
Charlie Hillard was an American aerobatics pilot, and the first American to win the world aerobatics title.
Gene Soucy is an American aerobatics pilot. The son of two pilots, he would wash airplanes at a local airport in exchange for flight time while growing up in Kentucky. He soloed in a glider at age 14, and in a regular airplane at 16.
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.
Lasham Airfield is an aerodrome 3.6 miles (5.8 km) north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham.
Marion Cole (1924–2011) was an American Aerobatic pilot.
Peter Podlunšek is a Slovenian aerobatics pilot.
Charles "Chuck" Aaron is an American pilot notable for being one of a handful of pilots holding an FAA waiver to perform aerobatics in a helicopter in the United States, and one of only four such pilots in the entire world. In 1980, Aaron worked on the air rescue program for NASA's Space Shuttle, and he founded his own company, FX Helicopters in Westlake Village, California in 1997. Aaron announced his retirement from the airshow circuit in 2015 and made his last performance for Red Bull at the November 2015 Red Bull Air Race World Championship in Las Vegas.
Petr Kopfstein is a Czech aerobatic pilot, representing the Czech Republic in flying aerobatics in an Unlimited category, and most recently a racer in the Master Class category of the Red Bull Air Race. He is the first winner of the Red Bull Air Race Challenger Cup. After his victory of the whole Challenger Cup in 2014, there were rumors about him moving to Masters; it became a reality for the 2016 season. Péter Besenyei and Paul Bonhomme departed from the series.
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| Current pilots (Master) | |
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| Current pilots (Challenger) |
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| Former pilots | |
