Led Japanese Acro Team; Retired Fighter Pilot

We regret to report -- very belatedly -- the death of airshow pilot Takahiro "Rock" Iwasaki in Japan on April 21st.

In Japan, aerobatics and airshow performances are all but unknown --and the authorities are hostile to the idea. Iwasaki, an irrepressible 53-year-old, was one of a very few performers in the island nation.

He was a military veteran, who flew fighters in Japan's self-consciously-named Air Self-Defense Force until he retired in 1995 with 25 years of service. But it was when he retired that he really started flying. He visited the USA to hone his aerobatic skills, and then went home and hit the Asian airshow circuit.

Rock Iwasaki led the AIRock team, which was one of the top airshow acts in Asia, and in fact was Japan's only private professional airshow team, flying Pitts S-2A Specials decorated with eye-grabbing colors (the undersides of his wings were finished in red and white checkerboard pattern, the upper side had sunbursts, and the registration was emblazoned on the plane in shocking green).

His own Pitts bore the vanity registration JA22AR (Japan 22 AiRock) and replaced his previous mount, JA11AR. He's a big enough deal that model kits of his plane were available to hobbyists in Japan -- that should give his American counterparts, people like Sean D. Tucker, Michael Goulian, and Patty Wagstaff, something to aim for.

Those American performers were not just in the same business as Rock. They were his friends, and a pilgrimage to ICAS was as much a chance to catch up on a year's events as it was a chance to compare notes and do business. (The picture of him in the brown pilot's jacket was taken at ICAS 2004.)

Iwasaki was alone in his Pitts Special when it crashed in a field near Tajima Airport in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture. The Japanese press reported that he was conducting aerobatic training. The accident remains under investigation by the Japanese authorities. they have not reported any progress in the investigation.

We'd like to express our condolences to Mitsuko Iwasaki and all Rock's other relatives, to Rock's teammates on the AIRock team, and to all of his legions of fans in Japan, and also thank Di Henderson (of Randy and Di Henderson's Texas T-Cart fame) for bringing this grim event to our attention, and Di's mom for translating Japanese news.

FMI: www.airock.co.jp  (Japanese Language)