The famous aerobatics pilot Rob Holland died after an airplane accident at the Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia.
His death on Thursday was announced in a statement on his official Facebook page.
Mr. Holland, 50, was to perform this weekend at Air Power Over Hampton Roads, a popular air show at the Virginia base.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that he was investigating the MXS MXS experimental plane accident.
Mr. Holland previously piloted the MXS-RH in carbon fiber and tailor-made, a plane complained by the same Australian company whose experimental aircraft crashed.
He was approaching the track “for a normal landing” when the accident occurred, said the principal researcher of the NTSB on Friday at a press conference. “There were no acrobatic maneuvers (sic) or nothing planned at that time.”
Jim Bourke, president of the International Aerobatic Club, said that Mr. Holland “revolutionized our sport, not only in the United States, but on the world scene, arriving on the stage of aerobatic competition as a demolition ball that relaxed all those who challenged him”.
John Cudahy, President of the International Air Time Council, told the Associated Press, Mr. Holland “has demonstrated what the end of the road looks like a pursuit of excellence”.
He played during the 2023 edition of The Biennal Air Show at the base and won several competitions for his daring waterfalls in the cockpit. He won the national American aerobatics championships a record of 13 consecutive times, his last victory being in 2024. In 2012, he was a recipient of the Art Scholl Prize, which was awarded by the International Air Salons Council.
Its website details a list of its appearances in 2025, including Airshows in Chicago, Milwaukee and Gold Coast, in Australia.
Mr. Holland was from New Hampshire and was a teenager when he qualified for the first time as a pilot, according to his website. He also studied aviation in a New Hampshire College, now disappeared.
“Even with an absolutely impressive list of achievements, both in conventional competition and in the world of the Air Fair, Rob was the most humble person with a singular goal of being simply better than it was yesterday,” the Facebook statement said.
The air show this weekend is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors, the air base said one day before the accident.
