The Buttonville Flying Club COPA Flight 44

 
The Airplane of the Day is the Pitts Special
 
Curtis Pitts was known for designing and building monoplane racing planes in the ‘40s and ‘50s, of which the most famous was the low winged “Pellet” of 1947 and the mid winged “Lil’ Monster” of 1951. Curtis began designing the Pitts Special in 1943 and it first flew in September of 1944. Since it’s inception, the Pitts Special has accumulated numerous competition wins and has dominated world aerobatic competition in the 1960s and 1970s.
Many of the aircraft had a picture of a skunk on them and were called "Stinkers". In 1962 Curtis Pitts set up Pitts Enterprises to sell plans of the S-1C to homebuilders.
 
All single-seat (S-1) and two-seat (S-2) Pitts Specials are variations on the basic design from 1944. The aircraft was initially popularized by Betty Skelton, Caro Bayley and other air show performers, which lead to the offering of aircraft plans around 1960.
 
Pitts produced limited numbers of aircraft during the 1940s and 1950s. It is widely accepted that the Pitts Special is the standard by which all other aerobatic aircraft are judged. After a number of home-built aircraft were produced from rough hand-drawn plans produced by Pitts, more professionally drawn plans went on sale in 1962. While many home-built aircraft were built in the 1960s, earning the Special a reputation as an excellent aerobatic aircraft, Pitts worked on the design of a two-seat aerobatic trainer version, the S-2, which first flew in 1967 and gained its type certificate in 1971. Factory-built aircraft produced by the Aerotek company at Afton, Wyoming were joined in production by the single-seat S-1S in 1973.
 
In 1972, the US National Aerobatic Team won the World Championships flying only Pitts Specials.
 
In 1977 Curtis Pitts sold his interests in the Pitts Special to Doyle Child.Child later sold the rights in 1981 to Frank Christenson, who continued production at the Afton plant under the guise of Christen Industries. The rights for home-built versions of the Pitts were sold in 1994 to Steen Aero Lab in 1994,with the Afton factory and production rights being transferred to Aviat.
 
Curtis Pitts died in 2005 at age 89. At the time of his death, he was working with Steen on the prototype of the new Pitts Model 14, a brand-new, two-seat biplane designed for unlimited aerobatics powered by the 400 horsepower Vedeneyev M14P radial engine. The rights to the Pitts name is currently owned by Aviat which also owns the similar model to the Pitts in the Christen Eagle.
 
Certified versions of the compact Pitts Special are now as an S1 single-seater with up to 200 hp flat-4 Lycoming engine and a 17 ft 4 in wingspan, or as an S2 two-seater variant featuring a 260 hp flat-6 Lycoming and a 20 ft wingspan. Pitts Specials have been equipped with engines of up to 450 hp.
 
The Pitts Special led the aerobatic world championships until the rise of the monoplane, though it remains very competitive in all levels of competition and remains a favorite of air show performers worldwide. The first monoplane to topple the Pitts from the top of unlimited aerobatic competition was the Russian- built and designed Yak-50.
 
Today, the single-seat Pitts Special S1-S plans are available from Aviat Aircraft. The S1-C and derivative S1-SS plans and kits are supplied by Steen Aero Lab in Palm Bay, Florida. The S1 continues to provide extremely high performance at a relatively low cost. Many hundreds of homebuilders have successfully completed and flown the Pitts since plans became available in 1960.
 

 
 
    
 
 
 
 
 
General characteristics
 
Crew: Two
Length: 18 ft 9 in
Wingspan: 20 ft 0 in
Height: 6 ft 7? in
Wing area: 125 ft²
Empty weight: 1,150 lb
Max takeoff weight: 1,625 lb
Powerplant: 1× Textron Lycoming AEIO-540-D4A5 flat-six air cooled piston engine, 260 hp
 
Performance
 
Never exceed speed: 182 knots (210 mph)
Cruise speed: 152 knots (175 mph) (max cruise)
Stall speed: 52 knots (60 mph)
Range: 277 NM (319 mi)
Service ceiling: 21,000 ft
Rate of climb: 2,700 ft/min
Wing loading: 13.0 lb/ft²
Power/mass: 0.16 hp/lb