The Twin Tigers Aerobatic Team is the 2019 recipient of the Bill Barber Award for Showmanship, according to officials with World Airshow News.
The team is made up of Mark Sorenson and Mark Nowosielski, flying Yak-55s.
Team owner Mark Sorenson took his first flying lesson at age 13 and soloed at age 16. He is a former U.S. Army AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter pilot who, at age 19, was one of the youngest combat-qualified Cobra pilots in Operation Desert Storm.
After the Army, Sorenson began an airline career, and he is currently an Atlanta-based Boeing 737 captain for Southwest Airlines.
His airshow career began in 2007 as a Cobra pilot with the Sky Soldiers formation helicopter team, and he launched his solo airshow career in 2011 with a Yak-55 aerobatic act.
Sorenson soon added a comedy act, Hotwire Harry and the Great Escape, and in 2012 added Mark Nowosielski in a second Yak-55 to create the Twin Tigers Aerobatic Team.
Like Sorenson, Nowosielski learned to fly when he was still in high school, and he graduated from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1999. It wasn’t long until he began his airline career, and he is now also a Boeing 737 pilot for Southwest, based in Orlando.
He began flying aerobatics in 2006 after purchasing a Pitts S-1C and soon began flying competitively. He won the U.S. National Advanced Aerobatic Championship in 2013 and has been a member of three Advanced World Aerobatic teams and will compete in his third Unlimited World Aerobatic Championship this year in France.
The Twin Tigers Aerobatic Team offers a two-ship Yak-55 act that begins with a series of formation aerobatics, but quickly morphs into a duel of sorts, with the two Marks competing to see who can fly through the most smoke rings created by their custom smoke-ring generation system set up in the airshow box near show center.
In 2018, Nowosielski debuted the team’s Tron-themed night performance, flying his Yak-55 fully decked-out with LED lights.
The team has also received industry accolades for their social media strategy, streaming their performances using Facebook Live.
The Bill Barber Award for Showmanship began in 1986 and is awarded to airshow performers or teams that have demonstrated great skill and showmanship. World Airshow News magazine and the friends and family of the late Bill Barber present the award annually.
Dont know if this is the same or not, but my moms cousin who would be my 2nd cousin was the leader for the flying tigers during the war, passed in Japan on a mission. He looked like a twin to Clark Gable. His name was Alan Wright, from Tenn. i visited his gravesite a few yrs ago.