The most popular aerobatics show is definitely the Red Bull Air Racing world championship. It is a series of events that is organized mostly over water (usually ports) where small aerobatic planes are timed over a course defined by nylon inflatable cones. The events are very spectacular and they are broadcasted live at Red Bull's website. Sometimes they are too spectacular as you can see in the image below where pilot Matt Hall touched the water (twice!) but managed not to crash.---



The incident happened in 5 June during the qualifying session for the race in Windsor Ontario. You can see the video here



The competing pilots are all very experienced. Matt Hall is a former F/A-18 pilot for the RAAF, in the photo above he flies the F/A-18 during a pre-show event. The competing aircraft are state of the art aerobatic planes, the MXS-R and Zivko Edge 540.

(update) - a spectacular video explaining the concept behind the races:

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More videos on the official youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Redbullairrace