Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

File:FederationAeronautiqueInternationaleLogo.jpg

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. This includes man-carrying vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned vehicles (such as model aircraft and UAVs). It was founded in 14 october 1905.

Activities

The FAI is the international governing body for the following activities:

• Aerobatics through the FAI Aerobatics Commission ("Commission Internationale de Voltige Aerienne" - CIVA)
• Aeromodelling through the FAI Aeromodelling Commission ("Commission Internationale d'Aero-Modelisme" -CIAM)
• Astronautic Records through the FAI Astronautic Records Commission ("International Astronautic Records Commission - ICARE)
• Ballooning through the FAI Ballooning Commission ("Commission Internationale de l'Aérostation - CIA)
• General aviation through the FAI General Aviation Commission ("General Aviation Commission - GAC)
• Gliding through the FAI Gliding Commission ("International Gliding Commission - IGC")
• Hang gliding & Paragliding through the FAI Hang Gliding & Paragliding Commission ("Commission Internationale de Vol Libre - CIVL)
• Microlighting through the FAI Microlight Commission ("Commission Internationale de Microaviation - CIMA)
• Parachuting through the FAI Parachuting Commission ("International Parachuting Commission - IPC )
• Rotorcraft through FAI Rotorcraft Commission ("Commission Internationale de giraviation - CIG)

The FAI establishes the standards for records in the activities. Where these are air sports, the FAI also oversees international competitions at world and continental levels, and also organizes the World Air Games and FAI World Grand Prix.

Records

1971 USSR commemorative stamp depicting Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal established by FAI

Among the FAI's responsibilities are the verification of record-breaking flights. For a flight to be registered as a "World Record," it has to comply with the FAI's strict rules, which include a proviso that the record must exceed the previous record by a certain percentage. Since the late 1930s, military aircraft have dominated some classes of record for powered aircraft such as speed, distance, payload, and height, though other classes are regularly claimed by civilians.

Some records are claimed by countries as their own, even though their achievements fail to meet FAI standards. These claims are not typically granted the status of official records. For example, Yuri Gagarin earned recognition for the first manned spaceflight, despite failing to meet FAI requirements. The FAI initially did not recognize the achievement because he did not land in his Vostok spacecraft, but later it recognized that Gagarin was the first human to fly into space. The FAI then established "The Yuri A. Gagarin Gold Medal", which has been awarded since 1968. [1]

Classes

The following types of craft have records:

• Class A Free Balloons
• Class B Airships
• Class C Aeroplanes
• Class D Gliders & Motorgliders
• Class E Rotorcraft
• Class F Model Aircraft
• Class G Parachuting
• Class H Vertical Take-off and Landing Aeroplanes
• Class I Manpowered aircraft
• Class K Spacecraft
• Class M Tilt-Wing/Tilt Engine Aircraft
• Class N Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) Aeroplanes
• Class O Hang Gliding & Paragliding
• Class P Aerospacecraft
• Class R Microlight
• Class S Space Models
• Class U Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Some of the records

Date	Measurement	Person	Aircraft	Type
Class A: Free balloons
March 21, 1999	40,814 km	Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones	Breitling Orbiter	Distance
May 4, 1961	34,668 m	Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather	Winzen	Absolute altitude
Class C: Aeroplanes
February 11, 2006	41,467.53 km	Steve Fossett	Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer	Flight distance record (without refueling)
July 28, 1976	3,529.56 km/h	Eldon Joersz	SR-71	Flight airspeed record
August 31, 1977	37,650 m	Alexandr Fedotov	MiG E-266M	Flight altitude record
October 22, 1938	17,083 m	Mario Pezzi	Caproni Ca.161	Flight altitude record (piston engine without payload)
Class D: Gliders & Motorgliders
August 29, 2006	15,460 m	Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson	Glaser-Dirks DG-505M (modified)	Gliding Altitude
January 21, 2003	3,008.8 km	Klaus Ohlmann and Karl Rabeder	Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4	Gliding Distance
Class O: Hang Gliding & Paragliding
November 14, 2007	461.6 km	Marcelo Prieto, Frank Thoma Brown and Rafael Monteiro Saladini	Sol Paragliders Tracer	Straight distance with a paraglider
Class R: Microlights
February 14, 2002	187 km/h	Julian Harris and Bob Sharp	Jabiru Aircraft UL	3 axis flight airspeed record.

External links

• Official FAI website