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A Marine, engineer and all-around entertainer, Jim LeRoy acquired a reputation as one of the most nimble, aggressive aerobatic performers in the air.

Flying a Pitts S2S airplane known as the "Bulldog Pitts," LeRoy, 46, became in a decade of full-time performance flying a highly sought-after pilot.

Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association, called LeRoy a "consummate performer" who always thrilled air show audiences.

"He was always willing to try things and do things that would thrill the crowd," said Knapinski, who spoke from the EAA AirVenture show Saturday at Oshkosh, Wis.

LeRoy performed at the 2006 AirVenture show. "He's a heck of a pilot," Knapinski said. "You know, he's one of the best ones out there in the air show business."

"I can tell you he was a great performer," said performance pilot Gene Soucy, who had flown with LeRoy as part of a group of performers known as X-Team. "He was an excellent pilot."

Based in Missoula, Mont., LeRoy received the 2002 Art Scholl Showmanship Award and the 2003 Bill Barber Award for Showmanship, one of just 11 performers to receive both honors, LeRoy's Web site said.

LeRoy's site said he was "one of only a handful of full-time" pilots who made a living performing for air show audiences across the world.

"I bet he flew more air shows than anyone," Soucy said.

Knapinski said full-time stunt pilots are a select group.

"It's a hard business," he said. "There's a lot of travel. There is, of course, a lot of expense."

Added Knapinski, "Jim has proven himself over the past decade to be one of the best."

LeRoy was performing Saturday at the Vectren Dayton Air Show in a two-plane act named "Codename: Mary's Lamb." The show is known for two planes flying close together, as well as jet-powered truck action and pyrotechnics on the ground, all set to music.

LeRoy had been close to death before.

The flying group to which he belonged, the Masters of Disaster or X-Team, lost two pilots in July 2005 at an air show in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. LeRoy, who flew in that show, landed his plane safely.

A third-generation pilot, LeRoy enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school graduation, his site said. He earned a commercial pilot's license and flight instructor's rating through the Marine Corps Flying Club at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, where he also worked as a flight instructor.

LeRoy's site points to 1982 as the year when he first began to "dabble" in aerobatics. After being honorably discharged from the Marines, he studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Illinois. He worked for GE Aircraft Engines after college as a design engineer and plant manager for a power plant in northern California.

LeRoy took up full-time flying in 1997.

"He was one of everybody's best friends ... it is a great loss," Soucy said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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• Air show pilot died instantly after crash
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• Pilot killed in crash was a full-time performer
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• Many spectators shocked, silenced by air show tragedy
• What it was like to photograph crash: A dreaded scene, a sickly feeling
• Black Hawk flies pilot to hospital
• Act that included LeRoy meant to awe, thrill
• About the plane
• Statement about Sunday's air show
Photos, diagrams, videos

• Photos of crash, earlier performance
• Diagram: How the crash happened
• Spectator video of air show crash
• Raw video of crash
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