Red Bull Air Race New York 2010

The fifth leg of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship tour will take place for the first time in New York over the Hudson River at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. Two years in development, the Red Bull Air Race New York will be a highlight race in 2010, and will bring eye-level racing action seen across the globe to one of the world’s finest cities.

Today, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, fifteen pilots will be flying lightweight, 1200-pound planes up to 230 miles per hour through inflatable, 65-foot-tall floating pylons on a 3 mile track on the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. The event is part of the 2010 Red Bull Air Race World Championship, which attracts millions of spectators worldwide, and is expected to bring in thousands of people this weekend.

Organizers anticipate hiring up to 2500 locals to help them staff the event, and expect it could inject up to $45 million into the area’s economy. The mayor of Jersey City, the location of the viewing grandstand, says via Fox News that today’s qualifying round and tomorrow’s final-which will be seen in over 200 countries- are a great way to put the “Garden State” on the map, saying, “it’s a great way for us to show the rest of the world what we have here in Jersey City and the state of New Jersey. It’s a great place to invest, it’s a great place to do business.”