By Ken Mammarella
Contributing Writer

Matt Chapman was 11 when his life changed “a thousand percent” after his father was transferred. “It was a huge culture shock,” he said of moving from “middle-of-nowhere” Forks Township in Northampton County to London, England. “It got me out of my small-town mentality.” 

A few years later, he figured out his career.

The family lived across the street from a park, and he cycled through various outdoor playthings, including toy sailboats, radio-controlled boats, radio-controlled cars and finally radio-controlled airplanes. “Something clicked,” he said. “I fell in love with airplanes.” 

Another aha moment occurred at his first air show, in Biggin Hill. “The first act was a Pitts Special, and he blasts off right in front of us. He just pitched and rolled and flew upside down along the ground, at 15 or 20 feet. And it’s like holy cow! I just looked at my dad and said ‘That’s what I want to do.’ From that very first air show, that flight seared in my mind. My goal was to become an air show pilot.”

Not just any air show pilot. One who taught himself aerobatics. Whose first air show, in 1983, was in a Pitts Special, rebuilt after being wrecked. Who in 1994 was the International Aerobatic Club unlimited champion. Whose biggest accomplishment was placing third at the World Aerobatics Championships in 1998 in Slovakia. Who stopped competing after 1998 but continued to entertain at air shows, until retiring from aerobatics in 2019. Who in 2023 entered the International Council of Air Shows Foundation Air Show Hall of Fame. 

His retirement from aerobatics surprised his friends. “They thought I was defined by my air show flying and I could not live without it because I need the limelight, need the fame, need the accolades,” he said in an interview from his home away from home, the hangar that he has rented for decades at New Garden Flying Field. “But let me tell you there’s no fame in air shows because it’s such a microcosm of everything in the world. Very few people know anything about who air show pilots are.”

Aerobatics and beyond

Chapman returned to the United States when he was 19 and used money from selling his model airplanes to help pay for flying lessons. It took about a year to acquire various aviation ratings. 

Multiple aviation jobs followed: flight instructor at Brandywine Airport in West Goshen Township, charter pilot in Pottstown, air ambulance pilot in New Castle County, corporate-jet pilot for ICI Americas and then flight engineer, co-pilot and pilot for American Airlines. 

He now lives near Avondale, with his job based out of New York. His seniority allows him to pick routes, and he favors Amsterdam, Lisbon and occasionally London. “I’m a creature of habit,” he said.

A few days after he earned his flight instructor rating, a friend alerted him about that wrecked Pitts Special. His mother co-signed the $3,000 loan so he could buy this project airplane.

A friend challenged him to enter a contest for aerobatics, which he acknowledged is “inherently dangerous and requires so many skills I didn’t have,” he said. “I never knew I had a competitive bone in my body until that first contest, and the hook was set.” He placed third in his experience level.

He was so committed to aerobatics that he lived for years without a fully furnished house so that he could allocate the money to buy a plane. He’s built and bought about nine planes over the years, for air shows and for travel, and he is now down to two: another Pitts Special and a Lancair Legacy.

In May, when he turns 65, he retires from his job as a pilot for American Airlines. He plans to get a dog and a new plane. The Legacy has more capabilities than a 787, but he called it “an expensive toy” that he will replace with “a real airplane, something that I can fly at nighttime and in light weather.”

Comments from his colleagues

“Matt has left his mark on the world of aerobatics, from being the highest placing US competitor in the last many decades at the World Aerobatic Championships, to his career as a premier air show performer,” said Bill Stein, an air show performer who flew with him on the formation team that Chapman led. “He is humble and funny, and he is dedicated to the craft.”

He’s “a good stick … [and] an outstanding individual in our industry,” said Wayne Boggs, using industry slang for a good pilot. Boggs is an air boss who runs air shows, and he also nominated Chapman for entry into the hall of fame. “Not only does Matt exceed the flying ability but is an outstanding gentleman and a great American.”

Chapman differentiates various in-the-air skills. “Aerobatics is a precision style of flying,” he said. “In aerobatic competition, you’re being judged against pilots in your same experience level.”

Being a stunt pilot involves “risky maneuvers with uncertain outcomes.” That’s not him.

And “air show flying is entertainment flying down low, done to music, trailing smoke. 

“You can basically do whatever you want, whatever you’re capable of and whatever your airplane is capable of. My favorite is the torque roll. That simply is when the airplane goes straight up and rolls around itself in the vertical line upwards. It runs out of energy – not fuel, but there was one time that happened – but the engine is still running, and the torque of engine and the propeller start rotating the airplane stationary. Then gravity takes over, and you start to slide back on the tail while still rotating.

He hopes he’s been an inspiration

“I just found it very gratifying, and I was particularly good at. And one other thing: it was easy on your body. It didn’t beat you up.” That said, all those maneuvers over all those years have taken their toll, including lower back pain, hip pain, elbow pain and neck discomfort.

At air shows, he was known for performing a rolling harrier, evoking the military jet that could take off vertically and hover. “I’m rolling the airplane, but I’m going at a very slow airspeed, probably 50 or 60 miles per hours, and I have what’s called a very high angle of attack,” he said. “It’s all based on the thrust of the engine, and there’s very little aerodynamics involved.” He stopped that maneuver when he bought an Xtra 330, a plane that was a little heavier with a little less power. 

He has lasting memories of his final air show in Pensacola, Florida. The first occurred just before, when he was invited to fly the No. 4 airplane in a practice run by the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy formation team. Formation flying is intense – as little as 2 feet separates the planes.

“It was 45 minutes of thinking I was seconds away from death, and their flying is insane,” he said. “I was one of the very few civilians allowed to sit in on their pilot brief and debrief in their sacred room. That was very special.”

And when he landed at the air show, he got hosed down with fire extinguishers. “It’s a tradition of the military for your fini [meaning final] flight.”

When asked how he wanted to remembered for his aerobatics, he offered this: “I just want people to respect my level of dedication and my professionalism and that I was one of the best at what I did. And hope I inspired some that saw me perform to pursue their own dreams.”