The 27th FAI World Aerobatic Championship in the “Unlimited” category held in Texas (USA) has come to an end. This year 57 pilots from 17 countries and 5 continents, including traditional leaders like Russia, France, UK and USA, took part in the competition. The representatives of Australia, Brazil and Canada also participated in the championship, press-service of Sukhoi Holding Company reports.

Members of Team Russia operated two Russian-produced aircraft (Su-26 and Su-31) rented in USA. Unfortunately, bad weather affected the championship. The first “known” program has been completed by the participants in 4 days.

The reigning all-round World Champion, multiple World Champion, European and Russian Champion, Honored Master of Sports, Mikhail Mamistov, took the lead. Multiple medalist of world and Europe championships, Honored Master of Sports, Alexander Krotov, was also among top-10 pilots after this part of program. Mikhail Mamistov also took the lead in the voluntary program. The following Russian pilots also made the list of top-10 pilots in this category: the reigning all-round Women’s World Champion, Honored Master of Sports, Svetlana Kapanina, and Alexander Krotov, the press-service added.

The second part of the competition included “unknown” program, which was a decisive factor in terms of the final results. The fact that pilots have to fly this program “at sight” without any training makes this part of the competition especially difficult. Following the results of this program only Mikhail Mamistov and Russian Champion of 2013, multiple medalist of World and European Championships, Honored Master of Sports, Oleg Shpolyanski, have made the top-10 list. French and American pilots took the lead in “Individual” and “Team” categories.

"Following the results of the competition, Francois Le Vot (France) became the all-round World Champion. Mikhail Mamistov took the second place and Gerald Cooper (UK) took the third place. Svetlana Kapanina won the full set of medals – silver one in known program, gold one – in voluntary program and bronze one in “unknown” program. The final result is second place in the women’s overall standings", - the press-service noted.

Team Russia took the third place falling behind team France and USA. Russian pilots won a total of 8 medals (3 gold ones, 3 silver ones and 2 bronze ones).

The Head Coach of Team Russia, Honored Master of Sports, Honored Coach of Russia, all-round World Champion of 1982, Viktor Smolin; engineers Alexey Shklyaev and Andrey Polikarpov; and Executive Director of Russian Air Sports Federation, International Master of Sports, Anatoly Belov, have made a significant contribution to the Team Russia’s development.