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Oklahoma's WAC Most Successful in History

By Carl Gadd.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, Aug. 31, 1996 -- Carl Whittle, Director of the 18th World Aerobatic Championships (WAC) disclosed, "The 18th WAC attracted more champion pilots, more countries, more interested spectators and more media from more countries than any WAC in the history of the sport."

Whittle was visiting with media prior to addressing the almost 600 people attending the WAC awards dinner at the Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center. He told them, "We're especially grateful to each of the people in the more than 16 Oklahoma cities and towns that volunteered their time, effort and community spirit to bring about an event being watched around the world."

Last September the Oklahoma City All Sports Association won the international competition for presentation of the 18th World Aerobatic Championships set for August 18-30, 1996. They set out to prove competitive aerobatics is a spectator sport attractive to the thousands of people in the Oklahoma aircraft industry. Cost recovery would come largely from public ticket sales.

The All Sports Association assigned the event to their Aerospace America Air Show team. The actual size of the potential U.S. audience for flying as competitive sport was unknown. Whittle did know that not many Americans had attended a WAC. They are most often held in Europe and 1996 would be the first time since 1980 the biennial meet would be held in the USA. It would also be the first time fans in the U.S. would buy an event specific ticket to attend.

A summary of events shows the search for suitable Oklahoma practice airports produced more towns than teams expected. The guest teams were welcomed from Elk City to Cookson, from Ponca City to Ardmore. Advance tickets were put on sale across the state. The story of Oklahoma City's plans for the event appeared in influential national magazines.

The Smithsonian Institution Air and Space web site on the Internet began to build a major section available to anyone in the world. It would report the event in real time. Fans from to Slovakia to Australia received some scores over the World Wide Web before the contestants.

When the fans came they were, as expected, mostly from Oklahoma. But, fans also came from Europe to Asia, from Canada to Brazil. Thirteen countries were represented by their medias editors, reporters and photographers. An overall paid attendance record for any WAC was set by the first Saturday. Whittle told the media, "Staff members report private aircraft from seven states, some as far away as Florida, and more have called to say they're coming. Today's license plate check showed cars from 23 states." Sunday was expected to have an even larger attendance--until the rain started. Flying did not begin again until after more than a 72 hour halt.

Friday night the winning pilots were honored by all the competitors, officials and U.S. supporters. The Russians swept the championship. Overall Championship went to Victor Chmal. Svetlana Kapanina took the Women's Gold. Russia won the men's and women's team competition. The score for the Four Minute Free Style was not completed until after the Awards Dinner began and was earned by Patrick Paris from France. It will take several weeks for the advance sale ticket receipts to come in from around the state. The 18th World Aerobatic Championships appears to be a success that points to other such events coming to Oklahoma.

MEDIA CONTACT:

B. Carl Gadd, DPR Company
405-848-6407-Telephone
405-848-6368-Facsimile
carlgadd@ionet.net

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