Red Bull Air Race will return in 2014 with Aussie Matt Hall competing, but there won't be an Australian round on the calendar.
The seven-race series starts in Abu Dhabi on 1 March, with rounds also in Malaysia, Poland, UK, Dallas, Las Vegas and China.
Red Bull Air Race CEO Erich Wolf said the three-year break from the series enabled the organisers to make some changes.
"We’ve all worked very hard over the last three years fine-tuning some of the safety aspects and bring the sport to a new level," he said.
"We never took our eye off the target and neither have these fantastic pilots or the great fans around the world. Their interest in the sport remained unbelievably high during these past few years. We can’t wait to get back in the air in February 2014.”
Matt Hall is one of 12 pilots that will compete for the championship, and has been itching to get back to the series during the enforced shut-down.
“We have been hoping this day would arrive for a few years and we knew the Red Bull Air Race organisers were working hard behind the scenes to make it happen,” Hall said.
“The Red Bull Air Race World Championship is the ultimate in air racing and I am delighted to again have the chance to take on the best pilots in the world," he said.
“The new race schedule is an exciting one and I can’t wait to get back in the track in what is less than six months.”
There will be a number of technical improvements, including standard engines and propellers for all pilots, changes to the lightweight nylon pylon material to make them even easier to burst apart if they are clipped by plane wings and raising the height of the pylons that the pilots pass through from 20 to 25 metres.
Competitors:
- Paul Bonhomme (GBR)
- Hannes Arch (AUT)
- Kirby Chambliss (USA)
- Nigel Lamb (GBR)
- Matt Hall (AUS)
- Peter Besneyei (HUN)
- Nicolas Ivanoff (FRA)
- Michael Goulian (USA)
- Matthias Dolderer (GER)
- Yoshi Muroya (JPN)
- Pete McLeod (CAN)
- Martin Sonka (CZE)
Noticeably absent from the starting grid will be Brazilian Adilson Kindlemann who famously put his aircraft into the Swan River in 2010. Just a few months later, Hall was suspended from racing after an incident when his wing tip brushed the river during the Detroit event.
The reigning world champion is Paul Bonhomme, who took the last two titles in 2009 and 2010.