The Origins of Competition Aerobatics

What was originally going to be a blog on competition aerobatics has become a recounting of the origins of competition aerobatics and the natural progression of flying an aircraft in an attitude other than straight and level.

Believe it or not we are going to start with the Wright brothers' maiden flight of the Wright Flyer I on December 17, 1903. The interesting fact is, it wasn't until September 20, 1904 that the first 360 degree turn was completed. Trust me, it was attempted many times before, but without success and unscathed airframes. Without going into great detail to maintain interest, what was happening is, as the aircraft banked, the nose would rise and the aircraft would fall out of the sky. It was the Wright brothers who first coined the term "stall" referring to the loss of lift from the wings. Unfortunately they created quite a bit of confusion which still lingers today. They associated the stall with a loss of airspeed rather than an increase in angle of attack.

So how does this relate to competition aerobatics you ask. Well, over the next few years, the Wright brothers were invited to give flying demonstrations all over the US and Europe. These events would be some of the largest gatherings of people with much pomp and circumstance . Headlines heralded these great events of amazing machines and the daring pilots who flew them. After a while there became other flying machines other than the Wright Brothers' and these aerial displays became more of a contest pitting one aircraft design against another. Now we need to consider that up until 1910, a steep turn was considered quite dangerous.

It was at this time that Walter Brookins, who was one of the first pilots the Wright brothers' recruited to fly the Wright Flyer at these different meets, that got things progressing . To help create some distinction, apart for the competition, Brookins started to incorporate the "Death Spiral" along with numerous steep turns during his display. Newspapers ate this up and wrote wild accounts of his feats. Needless to say this did not go unnoticed by the other pilots and aircraft manufactures. Competition created a need for stronger, faster, and more maneuverable aircraft and pilots who could push these aircraft to the very boundaries of flight.

One of the things I enjoy teaching is "Spin Recovery" even today, there is much misinformation about spins and therefore an appreciable fear of them with most pilots. The term "Spin" did not enter the aviation vocabulary until WWI, so accounts before WWI of spins are rather vague. The first survivable spin is credited to Fred Raynham, an Avro test pilot in 1911. But there is some dispute as to whether he was in an actual autorotation or not. A more significant account of the first spin recovery is accredited to LT. Wilfred Park in 1912 in an Avro G cabin biplane. Not only was the event witnessed but Lt. Park was able to recount his recovery inputs. His account and procedure would be documented in many prominent aviation journals around the world.

Then a pivotal moment happened in the history of aerobatics. The birth of aerobatics occurred on September 9th, 1913 when Nikolaevich Nesterov of the Imperial Russian Air Service performs the first complete loop near Kiev in his Nieuport IV monoplane. This moment is so significant that the Nesterov Cup is awarded to the winning Team of the World Aerobatic Championships.

In 1914 Maurice Chevillard, in a Henri Farman biplane, accomplishes the first complete roll in an aircraft. An interesting note is Chevillard is actually credited for a maneuver that is named after Max Immelmann, a half loop up followed by a half roll. It would have been impossible for Immelmann to have performed this maneuver in the aircraft he was flying during the war.

So now we have the basis for all aerobatic maneuvers, The Spin, the Loop, and the Roll. All aerobatic figures are based on these three figures. Cool stuff! I know!

Up until now most aerial demonstrations were mainly aircraft designers and manufactures showing off their wares. But Lincoln Beachy, in the US, had an aircraft custom built to his specification by Glenn Curtiss. The resulting aircraft was a smaller than standard Curtiss biplane with a 100 h.p. Curtiss OX engine. Beach was credited as the first to perform a complete loop in the US and became a master of the looping figure. He became rich performing before huge gatherings. By the end of 1914 he has accounted for looping his aircraft more than a 1,000 times before more than 17 million people in over 126 cities. He charged the organizers $500 for the first loop and $200 for each additional loop. Beach had opened up the skies for all future air show performers to follow his lead.

After WWI, informal aerobatic competitions became a popular feature at air shows and air displays throughout Europe and the US. One German pilot stood out from the rest at these events. Gerhard Fieseler approached the practice of aerobatics in an extremely methodical way while inventing figures that are still used in competitive aerobatics contests today. The first contest I went to as a volunteer, I witnessed a maneuver that got me hooked on competitive aerobatics. It was a Rolling Circle, a 360 degree turn with 4 complete and blended rolls incorporated without varying altitude. Gerhard Fieseler invented and completed the first Rolling Circle in 1925 to win the German Aerobatic Championship.

From 1925 to 1927, pilots and aircraft designers all over the world were risking everything to be the first to perform the first Outside Loop. It was on May 25th, 1927 that Jimmy Doolittle in a Curtiss P-1B at the McCool Airfield in Dayton, OH performs the first outside loop!

In 1927, the first international aerobatic contest is held in Zurich. Gerhard Fieseler and 30 other competitors from countries including Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Switzerland. Although Fieseler was the clear winner, politics of an international panel of judges, prove otherwise and due to the politics of the day, and Fieseler being a German Pilot, Fieseler places second.

Fieseler goes on to start his own aircraft company and develops the Tiger F-2 with a symmetrical airfoil. The Tiger F-2 was very sensitive in all three axis, while keeping the mass of the engine, pilot and fuel in one general location. It also incorporated an inverted fuel and oil system. The Tiger F-2 becomes the first truly aerobatic aircraft.

In 1934, the first World Cup Aerobatic Championship was held in Paris hosting six nations. Fieseler comes out of retirement to compete and is crowned the First World Aerobatic Champion in History.