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Smithsonian Inductions

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has opened its "Aerobatic Champions" exhibit, featuring two historic stunt planes.
  • One exhibit is the newly restored Pitts S-1C Little Stinker, renowned for its extreme agility and making pilot Betty Skelton famous as the first woman to perform an inverted ribbon cut.
  • The second aircraft highlighted is the Loudenslager Laser 200, a highly modified plane that enabled pilot Leo Loudenslager to perform increasingly difficult 9 G maneuvers.
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||| |—|—| | | | In October, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum opened its “Aerobatic Champions” exhibit, which features the newly restored Pitts S-1C Little Stinker and the Loudenslager Laser 200.

Little Stinker (shown), hand built by designer Curtis Pitts, was small and lightweight, with a short wingspan allowing for extreme agility. The S-1 made Betty Skelton famous-in it, she became the first woman to perform the inverted ribbon cut maneuver.

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