Said He Was Unable To Breathe After About 9,000 Feet

Aerobatic pilot Spencer Suderman was unsuccessful in his attempt to break his own record for inverted flat spins on Sunday.

Suderman already holds the world record for most inverted flat spins. He set that record at 98 turns in March, 2016, breaking his own record of 81 spins, according to the Guinness organization.

In Sunday's attempt, he had hoped to beat that 2016 mark by a wide margin, but it was not to be. "The plane spins faster at altitude than anything I have ever seen...about 1.4 seconds per rotation. I had to abort after 9 thousand feet of spinning. I simply couldn't breath against the transverse G forces," Suderman wrote on Facebook.

The airplane Suderman used in the attempt was experimental Pitts Special S-1c dubbed "Spinner 3". The plane is a different version of the one he used in 2016 to set the current world record of 98 spins. It is lighter and has a flat bottom wing, which lowers the stall speed and should allow it to reach a higher altitude. It also has a smaller engine that was custom built with extreme modifications for the attempt.

Suderman had hoped to complete about 120 rotations, but was only able to hold up through about 54, according to his account on Facebook. He has not said whether he will make another attempt.

(Image from video posted to Facebook)

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