Pitts

Jessy Panzer grew up with a love of airplanes in large part because her father was a corporate pilot.  She began her quest for a life in the sky in 1997 when she attended Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.  She graduated with a degree in Aeronautical Science in 2001.  Jessy started her competitive career in 2000 and followed with her first airshow in 2003.  In 2005, Jessy became a member of the “Stars of Tomorrow” flight team.  She performs in airshows all over the country flying the Pitts Special.  

The Pitts Special (company designations S1 and S2) is a series of light aerobatic biplane designed by Curtis Pitts. It has accumulated many competition wins since its first flight in 1944. The Pitts biplanes dominated world aerobatic competition in the 1960s and 1970s and, even today, remain a potent competition aircraft in the lower categories.  Curtis Pitts began the design of a single-seat aerobatic biplane in 1943–1944. The design has been refined continuously since the prototype's first flight in September 1944; however, the current Pitts S2 still remains quite close to the original in concept and in design.  Several of the aircraft that Curtis Pitts built had a picture of a skunk on them and were called "Stinkers". After she bought it, aerobatic performer Betty Skelton called the second aircraft that Curtis built, "Lil' Stinker". The prototype S-2, which was the first two-seat Pitts, was "Big Stinker", the prototype Model 11 (later called S1-11B) was "Super Stinker", and the prototype Model 12 was the "Macho Stinker".  In 1962 Curtis Pitts set up Pitts Enterprises to sell plans of the S-1C to homebuilders.