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The exciting journey began at a modest airfield in Chrudim in 1958, when a group of daring acrobats formed and soon achieved legendary status.
As part of this story, pilots Jiří Tlustý and Božej Struž, who completed their training at the military flight school, embarked on the daring odyssey of formation aerobatics. Together with Antonin Klimenda and Ladislav Bezák, the team developed their exploits with the unique Zlín Trenér – the best aerobatic plane of the 1960s.
With wafer-thin gaps between the aircraft wings, they performed a breathtaking range of solo aerobatic maneuvers in close formation flight. A special experience is the thrilling “mirror flight”, in which one aircraft defies gravity upside down while its counterpart mirrors every maneuver with unwavering precision.
Under the name SKY BOX, fame followed when the aerobatic team won the FAI World Cup in 1998, setting a new benchmark that lasted throughout the FAI WGPA era with consistent podium finishes.
Once known as SKY BOX, the pilots were gradually replaced. In 2000, a new era was ushered in with the transformation into the Flying Bulls Aerobatics Team with the support of Red Bull. The Zlín 50 performed valiantly until spring 2014, when it was replaced by the ultra-modern XtremeAir XA42 aircraft. Until then, many top pilots were part of the team, such as Radka Máchová, the only female leader of the aerobatics team, the outstanding solo pilot Jiři Saller, the Slovaks Daniel Polonec and Laco Trebatický, Jiři Vepřek, and Miroslav Krejci, the last Mohican from the SKY BOX era, who even flew the XA42 with the team until 2021 and mentored all the current pilots.
They ventured beyond borders and showed their fascinating performances in the skies of exotic countries: in Japan, China (through the dangerous Tianmen Cave), India, the United Arab Emirates, and throughout Europe.
Currently, a new constellation can be seen in the sky, led by Stanislav Čejka, a fighter pilot who pilots the formation, along with Martin Spacek and Jan Tvrdík, all experienced JAS-39 Gripen fighter pilots, and Jan Rudzinskyj, a freelance airshow pilot. In keeping with the founding ethos, their demonstrations showcase the technical excellence of their flying skills by performing gravity-defying feats such as vertical ascending half-rolls, vertical formation loops, mirror acrobatics and inverted loops that defy the conventions of flight.
The heartbeat of her aerial ballet resonates in fascinating detail:
The Czech Flying Bulls Aerobatics Team relies on the XA-42, a two-seater sports and aerobatic aircraft from the German manufacturer XtremeAir GmbH.
XtremeAir XA42
