posted Sep 30th, 2014 - The Sun Path Products reported for the first time on 30 May 2014 that Arizona Airspeed will continue with a new lineup after the FAI World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2014.

In fact, Mark Kirkby confirmed the breaking news during a live NSL Talk on 17 February, which was published on 18 February 2014. He said by then that he would be ready to retire whenever Airspeed was in a good position to move on. The time has come, and the world's most successful Formation Skydiving competitor of the past two decades makes room for a new Airspeed Tail.

Mark Kirkby had also confirmed that Niklas Hemlin would come back into the active lineup. He was the alternate for Arizona Airspeed after winning his gold medal as the team's Center Inside at the Mondial Dubai 2012. However, the new slots were not determined at that point in time.

In fact, the new Airspeed slots are still not final, as the team is in the final stage of making the best decision. Two slots have been defined, and Mark Kirkby can retire with confidence since former SDC Rhythm XP Tail Thiago Gomes will be back in his favorite slot.

He was in the Point slot in his first two years with Airspeed after several Tail years for Rhythm. Thomas Hughes will come back as the Center Outside, and the other two slots have been open until training began with the new lineup.

Airspeed now provided current video footage of the team in training at SkyVenture Arizona. The clips show Niklas Hemlin and Chris Farina in both open slots, and Airspeed was interested in feedback by the audience. The team will not really make the final call based on the feedback, however, all information will obviously be interesting for the team to know.

It is not an easy decision, as both team members can fill both slots more than efficiently. However, Chris Farina and Niklas Hemlin are both more familiar with the Center Inside slot than with any other position.

Niklas Hemlin was the steaming Airspeed engine who drove the team to the gold medals in Dubai. Chris Farina first drove Perris Fury dangerously close to Airspeed and then continued the same pursuit with SDC Rhythm XP until he became the new Center Inside for Arizona Airspeed in 2013. One of the two world class engines now has to switch to the front piece and work together with Thomas Hughes.

One option for the new Airspeed lineup is going back to a time when the potential future piece partners spent training and competition with each other and use those earlier experiences.

Chris Farina and Thiago Gomes are a very well trained rear piece. They trained and competed together with SDC Rhythm XP in 2012 until Thiago Gomes moved to Arizona and switched to the Point slot. Rhythm's 23.8 average at the USPA Nationals 2012 is still the team's highest result ever.

Thomas Hughes and Niklas Hemlin also knew each other from previous training and competition with Team Fastrax in 2007 before they both joined Airspeed at the end of the 2010 season. Thomas Hughes was the Center Inside for Fastrax, while Niklas Hemlin collected Point experiences on world class level.

Fastrax got even closer to Arizona Airspeed than SDC Rhythm XP, with a 24.4 average at the USPA Nationals 2007. It would be no big surprise if the new Airspeed 2015 lineup went back to those earlier experiences to finalize the new slots. However, Niklas Hemlin won the Airspeed gold medal in 2012 as Center Inside, and Chris Farina was also in the Point slot before he joined Perris Fury. The poll is open...