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 ensuing years, the championships have grown to become the premiere competition event in sport aviation. However, aerobatics has been going on since the inception of the airplane. The definitive work on the subject 'Flight Fantastic' has 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 used in aerobatic contests worldwide.


"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."

Past Champions