The Pitts Special is easily one of the most iconic aerobatic planes ever built. Hundreds have been produced since the first was constructed in 1945. It’s hard to go to an airshow without seeing at least one Pitts on the performer lineup (and really, who would want to?). The oldest surviving Pitts S-1C, the second built, is displayed inverted at the entrance of the Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, in Chantilly, VA. At its Washington museum, an S-1S hangs in the giftshop.
The design was created by Curtis Pitts. He wanted to build a plane for himself; he never intended for it to be mass produced.
“Rather than the larger pre-war biplanes, Pitts wanted something smaller that would climb, roll, and change attitude much more quickly,” the Air and Space Museum says.
What he developed was the smallest aerobatic plane at the time. It was lightweight and nimble. Different variants of the design won dozens of world championship titles in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Even today the plane is used in competition flying, though larger, more powerful planes now dominate the competition circuit.
But Pitts also designed a number of other, less well-known aircraft. All told, he design more than a dozen planes before he passed away in 2005. One of those designs is the Model 12, of which fewer than 75 have been built. Much larger than the Special, it boasts a 360 hp radial engine.
Back in 2011, I got the chance to ride along on an air-to-air shoot over San Francisco with two Model 12s and an S-2C. Our photoships was a Cessna 180. We took off from Hayward Airport (KHWD) and headed out toward the Golden Gate Bridge.
I was in the front seat of the Model 12 with my Canon 60D and a 10-22 mm EF-S lens. This was my first air-to-air flight, and my first time flying over San Francisco. It was a warm, hazy December afternoon. Toward the end of the flight, a bit of fog began to roll in over the Golden Gate.
Here’s a few of the photos that I took that day:
Photos from the flight’s photographer, Sagar Pathak, can be found in the March 2012 edition of In Flight USA.