Origins - Development - Background - Aircraft

The modern World Aerobatic Championships began in 1960 in Bratislava, Czechoslovokia, replacing the earlier, less sophisticated Lockheed Trophy contests. Ladislav Bezak of Czechoslovokia became the first World Aerobatic Champion, flying a Zlin 226T The rest of the Czech team was close behind in Zlin 226A's, setting a precident for home team victories that would last the decade. In the ensueing 36 years it has grown to become the premiere competition event in sport aviation. However, aerobatics has been going on since virtually the inception of the airplane. The definitive work on the subject, Flight Fantastichas a chapter more than halfway through entitled "New Influences", one of which was a young Spanish pilot, Colonel José Luis de Aresti Aguirre, about whose life story the development of the World Aerobatic Championships as we know it today revolves.

Here an extended quote from Flight Fantastic explains the development of the notation and scoring system of the World Aerobatic Contest and why the Spanish won the third one ever held.

But an era was passing. Perhaps it was inevitable that the relaxed, freestyle Lockheed Trophy, so redolent of Englishness and amateurism, should soon be overtaken by a highly organized and regimented international championship. One of the attractions of the early Lockheeds had been the wide variety of aircraft types that could compete on their own terms, and it was always a delight to see the Bücker Jungmeister among them. As a sporting occasion, the Lockheed had always represented a pleasant sojourn among flying friends with the added spice of a trophy awarded at the end of the weekend, and in general it was reckoned that the judges got it pretty well right each year.

But the demands of the Lockheed were not really rigorous, and the method of judging was subjective. Mathematical systems of evaluation already existed, and had done since Fieseler started them for the German Championships in 1928. Not only was that system still in use in Germany, the Saint-Yan aerobatics centre in France also had its sophisticated structure for competitions described in Chapter 11, which utilized a catalogue of 85 coefficients ranging from 1 to 8 in difficulty value. Each individual manoeuvre performed in a sequence was graded 1 to 5 for accuracy of execution.

When the first FAI World Aerobatic Championships came into being in 1960, what was really needed was some general agreement about a truly international judging method. We have already seen how the French pilot François d'Huc Dressler brought out a notation system which he published in l955, and which was tried out for writing the contestants' Free Programmes in the 1960 World Championships. Sadly, he had died in 1957 before he could develop his system any further, but the sport of competition aerobatics was very fortunate in that a successor to d'Huc Dressler appeared shortly afterwards on the scene, who took on the mammoth task of creating a dictionary out of the symbols and their combinations.

Colonel José Luis de Aresti Aguirre, a Spanish grandee from an old and distinguished family, was born in Bilbao and became a flyer in the 1930s in time to get involved in the horror of the Civil War - which cut short his studies as a medical student. Becoming a pilot for the republican government, he was assigned the manoeuvrable Polikarpov 1-16 Rata low-wing monoplane and within six months found himself flying demonstrations for his military chiefs. He gave his first public airshow at Palma de Mallorca in 1939 at the age of 20. Then, precluded from military service by his former republican allegiance, he joined the Jerez Pilot Training School as an instructor. Here there already existed an enthusiastic aerobatic group, and Aresti's responsibilities included training several hundreds of pupils who were to be tested for progression to fighters. For these tests he used a system of aeIobatic notation and held judging sessions. He had a flair for organization, and drew up a training rulebook as well as an 'Aerobatic Flight Manual' for the Spanish Air Force in 1944.

After the war, Aresti became a test pilot for the Air Ministry Flight Test Centre in Madrid, and founded several civilian pilot training schools in Spain, while flying airshows around Europe in his ex-military Jungmeister. With typically Latin verve and dash he soon had an international reputation for exciting, low-level displays for which the agile and responsive Bucker was the ideal mount. In competition he seldom managed to get the better of his great rival Cantacuzino, but he excelled at the airshow aspect of aerobatics, and in the 1957 Lockheed programme he was seen to perform that extraordinary landing from a flick roll which Cantacuzino had made his own. He also did a series of superbly judged inverted runs just a few feet above the grass. When Aresti gave a display, it was always something to look forward to.

After the experiences of the first World Championships, the International Aerobatics Commission of the FAI (CIVA) got together in 1961 to make recommendations for the next event, and Aresti attended as the representative from Spain. Louis Notteghem represented France, Mike Murphy and Bevo Howard the USA. On the agenda were several recommendations, from Aresti, Notteghaml and Oliver Stewart of Britain, concerning the regulations and the attribution of marks. Vice-President Notteghem was delegated to investigate these recommendations and formulate a list of difficulty coefficients on behalf of the Commission. Aresti volunteered to help him.

Meanwhile, by the end of 1961 José Luis de Aresti had published his own Sistema Aresti, which was already in use in Spain. It was a comprehensive dictionary of all possible aerobatic manoeuvres, and the Spanish Aero Club urged its adoption internationally. Some of the symbols themselves were new in particular the sign for the tail-slide and the triangular symbols for flick rolls and spins; but in general the notation was quite familiar to any pilot who had been around the aerobatic scene for any length of time, and as a catalogue it was not too difficult to use. Contestants in 1962 were again asked to draw a sketch of their free sequence to give to the judges, but no agreement had been reached about the Sistema Aresti, and the universal language was still d'Huc Dressler's. By now, Gerhard Fieseler had joined the International Commission, and it was far from unanimous in its views on the subject.

With Spain as the host of the 1964 World Championships, a decision was eventually made in 1963 to go ahead with the Spanish system. The Aresti Dictionary has remained in use ever since, growing from an initial 3,000 or so manoeuvres to a maximum of some 15,000, all with their own symbols and difficulty coefficients. François d'Huc Dressler was not forgotten by the way when the vote was taken by CIVA: a touching note was made in the Minutes paying tribute to 'the late aerobatic pilot d'Huc Dressler, who was the originator of Aerocryptography'.

Aresti himself received many awards for his work, including Gold and Bronze Medals from the FAI and he served as President of CIVA in 1968-69. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the strong government involvement in Spanish aerobatics, whose competition pilots until 1972 came chiefly from the Air Force, and which until 1977 continued to receive military support for its equipment. At that point, of course, with the great changes after the death of Franco, a Spanish Civil Aeronautical Federation (FENDA) took over the sporting side of aviation, in conjunction with the Royal Spanish Aero Club. This meant that a new look could be taken at the outmoded Zlin 526s, 726s and Acrostars in use at the time, with which it had not been possible to compete seriously in World Championships since 1972; and at last it was decided to bring the Spanish international pilots right up to date with a brand new fleet of Zlin 50s. The machines were delivered in 1980 - too latel unfortunatelyl for the World Championships at Oshkosh - but from 1981 onwards a new young team of Spanish pilots began making their mark internationally. The lead taken by Aresti in 1964 was even then strongly in evidence.

The Spanish team fielded at the 1964 World Championships comprised five Air Force flight instructors, each with some 2,000 hours apiece, and they lacked for nothing in the way of support. National prestige was very much at stake. Spain had a proud tradition of military aerobatics, dating back to the much-loved war hero Captain Joaquin Garcia Morato and his two companions of the 'Blue Flight', Julio Salvador and Bermudez de Castro.

No doubt the memory of Garcla Morato was very much alive in 1964 when preparations started for the World Cham pionships, and the Spanish Air Force team was provided with a fleet of the latest Zlins--the 326 models--for the occasion. All five were moved with their wives and families to the Bilbao area, where they practised over the field full-time for months Both the Czech and Soviet teams had also been thoroughly prepared and trained, and it was not surprising that pilots from these three nationalities walked away with nine of the top ten placings.

Another innovation brought in for the World Championship in Bilbao, as well as the Aresti Dictionary, was an Unknown Compulsory programme which comprised one manoeuvre each selected by the individual teams competing. The judges put them together into a sequence, adding a few figures where necessary to make the combination work, and the pilots had to fly them straight off, without practice. In effect it was a stroke of genius, and one of the best innovations ever introduced to competition aerobatics, testing the fundamental skill of the pilot with tricky manoeuvres that he and his own opponents had chosen.

A home win had been predicted, and Tomas Castaho from Spain lived up to expectations, winning two out of the six programmes and coming in first overall. As the new World Champion his prize was the newly established Aresti Cup, a huge and ornate affair made of silver with gold embellishments surmounted with a golden globe. Aresti had donated this trophy himself, to be awarded to each overall World Champion. He wanted it to be truly international in nature, so he invited all the members of the FAI to furnish a large gold coin and a gold emblem of their National Aero Club to decorate the body of the trophy. On top of all was a little silver model of a Bücker Jungmeister Aresti's much loved aeroplane.

And so we see the WAC fully evolved by the third contest in 1964, which also proved the value of state sponsorship of team efforts, an effect still in force today. The Hungarian Jozsef Toth won the World Championships held in Budapest in 1962. The Spaniard Tomas Castano won the World Championships held in Bilbao, Spain in 1964.

With the introduction of the Yak-18PM, the Cold War came to the World Championships in Moscow in 1966, as the Soviet Team swept WAC IV, taking the first four positions in both the Mens and Women's categories, a feat that has never been repeated. The Soviet State had come to fly.

In 1968, the East German Erwin Blaske took the Aresti Cup and his teammates the Nesterov Cup, flying Zlin 526a's as the German Democratic Republic dominated WAC V. In a premonition of things to come, United States pilot Bob Herrendeen took 7th in a Pitts S1-S, the highest placement of an American pilot to date in a WAC.

The second decade of the WAC opened in 1970 at Hullavington, England, when the Soviet pilot Igor Egorov won the Aresti Cup and the United States team of Bob Herendeen, Charlie Hillard and Gene Soucy took the Nesterov Cup. By now the Pitts S1-S Special had become the defacto American team airplane, and its unusual performance was having its effect on the WAC. Arnold Wagner took the Swiss Acrostar to its highest level that year, placing fourth behind the Egorov, Herendeen and Hilliard.

In 1972, the Americans dominated WAC VII, and Hillard became the first United States World Champion, and with his teammates Gene Soucy and Tom Poberezney took the Nesterov Cup for America for the second time. Mary Gaffaney won Gold Medals in her first two flights and became America's first Women's World Aerobatic Champion, placing fifth overall.

The 1974 WAC was cancelled for political reasons, and indication of its value as a prestige event during the Cold War years.

In 1976, WAC IX was held in Kiev, and the Soviets responded to the Pitts with the introduction of the Yak 50 and the state sponsored team won the Men's Individual (Letsko) and Team (Letsko, Egorov and Pimenov) and women's Individual (Leonova) and Team (Leonova, Yaikova, Nemkova) titles.

In 1978, the WAC went to Czechoslovakia, and Czech pilot Ivan Tucek took the Aresti Cup in a Zlin 50. Kermit Weeks of the U.S. took second in the Weeks Special, a derivitive of the Pitts. The Soviets dominated the Women's division in the Yak 50.

The third decade of World Aerobatic Championship competition dawned in Oshkosh, Wisconsin as the WAC came to America for the first time, although the contest was boycotted by the Soviet Team. Leo Loudenslager became only the second American to become the World Champion, introducing his Laser midwing monoplane (whose influence can still be seen in the Extra design series) in the process. His teammates Henry Haigh and Kermit Weeks completed a U. S. sweep of the top three spots, and Betty Stewart won her first women's World Championship title.

In 1982, the contest moved to Spitzerberg, Austria for WAC XI. Soviet pilot Victor Smolin won the Aresti Cup in a Yak 50, however American Henry Haigh was second by only 5 points out of 16400 in his Super Star, a monoplane of the Laser design formula. Betty Stewart became the first pilot and only woman to win a gender Individual championship twice in a row. Linda Meyers-Morrissey flew her first WAC and took 9th in the Weeks Special.

In 1984 Czech pilot Petr Jirmus took first and West German Manfred Strossenreuther, for whom the Manfred Strossenreuther Trophy is named took second, both flying the Zlin 50, at WAC XII at Békéscsaba, Hungary. Soviet women's pilots Khalide Makagonova and Liubov Nemkova took first and second in the Women's, flying the new Yak 55. Debby Rihn-Harvey took third in a Pitts S1-S. WAC XII saw the introduction of the Sukhoi Su26, which would evolve to the formidable Sukhoi 31 which is now the mainstay of the Russian team. The United States Men's team took home the Nesterov Cup for the fourth time.

In 1986, WAC XIII was held in South Cerney, England, where the weather was a factor. Petr Jirmus repeated his Individual Men's title. Linda Meyers-Morrissey won a gold medal in the Unknown in a memorable flight on the heels of a mistake in the Free. Also on the 1986 team were current U.S. Women's team members Debby Rihn-Harvey and Patty Wagstaff.

In 1988, the WAC returned to the North American Continent for the second time as WAC XIV was held in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. The United States team did well, with Henry Haigh finally winning the long pursued Aresti Cup in part on the strength of an exceptional Unknown flight in his Super Star. The U.S. Men's team of Haigh, Kermit Weeks and Clint McHenry took the Nesterov Cup. In the first ever awarding of the FAI Challenge Cup, newcomer Ellen Dean joined Linda Meyers-Morrissey and Patty Wagstaff to take the Women's Team trophy. But the handwriting was on the wall for American efforts as the development of the Russian Sukhoi, the French CAP 231 and the introduction of the Extra 300 clearly indicated Europe was progressing beyond the capabilities of a 200 horsepower airplane.

The fourth decade of World Aerobatics began with WAC XV in Yverdon, Switzerland in 1990. The French won, with Claude Bessiere taking the Aresti Cup and his teammates taking the Nesterov Cup. Linda Meyers-Morrissey took second in her new CAP 231 to Natalya Sergeeva of the Soviet Union in a Sukhoi Su26. The French support program had paid off, and their dominance had begun.

The 1992 WAC in Le Havre was called on account of weather.

The 1994 WAC was held in Debrecen, Hungary, where Xaviar deLapparent again took the Aresti Cup for France Voltiege, and his teammates won the Nesterov Cup at WAC XVII. Patty Wagstaff took second in the Women's with Linda Meyers-Morrissey in 9th and Debby Rihn-Harvey in 11th, respectively. The Russian Men took second and the Hungarian Men took third. Phil Knight took 15th place in the Men's, Mike Goulian took 22nd and Robert Armstrong took 25th.

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