General
In January jumpers from Australia made a 16-way diamond in Toogoolawah on the first attempt. All of them used X228 mains.
Records and events
The first 25-way diamond was built in France on May 12. Soon after that the frenchmen made a world record 36-way diamond and held it for 23 seconds. They jumped from a Fokker 27. The record was jumped on May 15. Patrice Girardin and Patrick Castella were organizing. Jumpers used mostly Contact mains.
US jumpers also tried to break the large-formation record. The best of the 40-way biplane attempts was 22-way. They made nine attempts. The Guinness Book of Records TV Show was sponsoring the event held in Muskogee. Some sources told that the jumpers built a few big-ways after the official record jumps.
Jumpers from South Africa made a 18-plane in Phalaborwa. They used a DC-3 from the Air Force and held the record formation for 22 seconds. Jumpers used Cruislite and Xenon (made in SA) mains. Earlier South African records included 12-, 14-, and 16-planes. The new record was jumped in October.
Competitions
In Europe there was the third European Cup in Annecy, France from May 20th to May 23rd.
The second World Championships in CRW were held in Vichy, France from August 17th to August 29th. They flew a Pilatus Porter. France won the sequencial again, now their winning margin was 27 points! China was the gold medalist in rotation and the US team ”Jump street” won 8-speed. In rotation the rules had changed; Now you needed to score 10 points as quickly as possible. The Chinese team made it in 1 minute 24.66 seconds. The old record was 1’39.4″ set by US ”Prism” Team in the US Nationals.