Sky Blazer: The Chris Sperou story

South Australian aerobatics master Chris Sperou OAM is an important part of this state’s impressive aviation history.

It’s a history which began with Australia’s first plane flight, nicknamed the “Wittber hop”, which took place five feet in the air above a Bolivar paddock in 1910; and continued with the great Houdini, who made Australia’s first controlled flight a few days later in Victoria, and South Aussies Ross and Keith Smith, who made the first flight from England to Australia in 1919.

Chris keeps in his hangar at the Murray Bridge Aerodrome a picture of Adelaide’s Jimmy Melrose, a celebrity aviation record-breaker and heartbreaker in the 1930s.

But initially, Chris wasn’t motivated by or even particularly aware of his state’s skyborne achievements.

He just knew that he wanted to fly.

At 86, he’s still flying, a trail of smoke and distinguished awards in his wake.

He has been named Australia’s aerobatic champion 13 times, flying 35 different types of aircraft and performing in Ukraine, Europe and the US.

He has represented Australia in the World Aerobatic Championships six times, winning bronze in 1980.

He set an Australian altitude record in a Pitts Special biplane and has mastered the death-defying feat of flying inverted in mirror formation a few feet above other aircraft.

He was also the first person in Australia to do his famous inverted ribbon cut.

“The ribbon’s 25 feet above the ground,” he says.

“I fly under it upside-down without hitting it.

“The fin would be about a metre from the ground if you fly under the ribbon.”

To honour one of the town’s favourite sons, the Ceduna Hotel named an item on their menu after him: the Sperou Twist.

Yet for such a high-flyer, the term “down-to-earth” is perfectly apt.

Rather than seeking fame, he’s more comfortable sharing the glory with other people, including his business and flying partner of more than 30 years, Warren Stewart.

Together, these good mates perform in two planes as the Sky Blazers Aerobatics Team.

Chris was born at Thevenard, near Ceduna on the West Coast, into a mostly Greek community.

Greeks from Thevenard are said to have introduced barramundi to Anglo-Celtic Australians.

Chris’s parents had both come to Australia from Cyprus.

He started his working life as a hand-line fisherman, but his destiny became clear was he wagged school as a kid to watch fighter pilots land in Ceduna.

He, too, wanted to be a fighter pilot, but his parents wouldn’t allow it.

Instead, as soon as he turned 21, he joined the Royal Aero Club of SA and learnt to fly at Parafield, while engaging in “unusual attitudes”.

This aeronautical term refers to going beyond flying at a fairly straight level.

Chris, who admits he’s somewhat of a rebel, says, “I used to throw the aeroplane around – roll it, loop it, do anything I could with it … I enjoyed unusual attitude flying.”

Despite all of his accomplishments, Chris considers the highlights of his long career to be meeting pilots like Chuck Yeager and Betty Stewart … and saving the latter’s life.

Brigadier General Charles Yeager was a United States Air Force officer who, in 1947, became the first pilot to officially exceed the speed of sound.

“Yeager was brought over to Schofields (an air show in New South Wales) as a celebrity in about ’85,” Chris says.

“He was a bit of a hero for me, because he was just an ordinary bloke that did well.

“Where these guys that came out of university or whatever they did to become aeronautical engineers and pilots, this guy did it the hard way, and he did it well – and he showed them up.

“I thought, ‘He’s a bit like me in that respect.’

“So I really enjoyed his company, even though it was just a drinking session.

“We were at the airshow … After the display, he came over.

“I was there with my aeroplane, and we were in a big tent.

“He was a very quiet person, an unassuming man, but very friendly.

“We were just having drinks (of scotch, not Jäger) and laughing and carrying on.”

Betty Stewart was another American pilot who talked and drank with Chris and Yeager at the same airshow.

She’d been the women’s world aerobatic champion twice.

Stewart had allowed Chris to fly her aeroplane in Austria, as his plane had been damaged when being transported. 

“It was a funny thing: by doing that, I saved her life,” Chris says.

“When I got in it and worked the stick, there was a sort of a second reaction by pulling the stick back.

“I thought, ‘That’s bloody strange,’ and my team engineer said, ‘Well, let’s have a look.’

“The inspection revealed that a pushrod was hanging on one thread.

“If that had come adrift, Chris wouldn’t have had any control of the aeroplane.

“So for her (Stewart), allowing me to fly it, we picked this up.

“When they flew it over in a Hercules from America, the engineers didn’t put it back together properly for some bloody reason.

“And that was awesome – by that happening, it saved her life (and) it saved my life, too.”

Read more of this story in the autumn 2025 edition of Murraylands Life magazine.

Where to get your copy of Murraylands Life magazine

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