The Global Stars

In the arena of formation aerobatic display flying, a new British team is wowing crowds around the world.

- Keith Wilson

Over the last thirty years, I have been lucky enough to fly alongside and photograph the amazingly talented Mark Jefferies as he flew everything from a Bücker Jungmann, Pitts, Laser, Yak-52, and Yak-11 to a variety of Walter Extra’s aerobatic designs. The latest assignment saw me hanging upside-down in my straps in the front of an Extra 300L−superbly flown by Chris Heames− while flying above, behind and beside the UK’s newest formation display team, The Global Stars. Images from that shoot illustrate this profile, and you can see why the team is achieving great success on the international air display circuit.

Team manager Mark has been involved in aviation for as long as he can remember. He flew regularly with his father Len from their family strip at Fullers Hill Farm− now better known, tongue in cheek as ‘Little Gransden International’− regularly taking to the air in a Tiger Moth or Bellanca Scout, often involving aerobatics.

Mark wanted to learn to fly as soon as he was old enough and at seventeen gained a gliding scholarship with the Air Cadets at Henlow. Later, at 21, he was placed under the watchful eye of Norman Whistler (a wartime RAF instructor on Harvards in Canada) to learn in the family ACA Scout. He quickly went solo and soon progressed to advanced stall and spin training. Later in his training, when Norman sent him off solo “to fly around for an hour”−but didn’t specify what type of flying−Mark climbed to 5,000 feet and practised spinning on his own for the hour; his first solo aerobatics.

After passing the GFT (‘skills test’ today) and with a few more hours required to finish the course, Norman and Mark used the time for dual aeros. Clearly, Mark was hooked! Around this time, Mark had been rebuilding a Spanish-built CASA Jungmann but recognised that it was probably a