Official Aviation Thread...

[ThatM20Guy]

Very cool! I need to make it to Reno sometime. Really hoping I can get out to Oshkosh next summer though. Just need to get a higher zoom lens.

[jpod999]

Thom Richard is a really cool guy. He is plagued with bad luck when it comes to racing. He owns the unlimited racer "Precious Metal". The first year he raced it the Rolls Royce Griffon ate its cams. He got it fixed and finished 7th. The following year they got some things sorted out and were looking good for a solid 5th place finish when one of the inner gear doors departed. A new door cost him $25K or something. 2013 they had a brand new race engine run for a total of 10 min before spinning a rod bearing. They thrashed for 36 hrs straight to build another engine that would work. They got to the races with 15 minutes before the deadline to enter. Had to race their way into the gold heat. 2014 they were back, with the pieced together engine from the year before. In the final race was called for a boundary cut that turned out to be a bogus call after reviewing the film and GPS data. They had finished 3rd but were disqualified. 2015 he set out for Reno in Precious Metal running a brand new race prepped Griffon with lots of new stuff. The plane was running better and faster than ever (The team members are pretty confident they would have won last year.) At the first fuel stop in northern Florida, the plane caught fire... reason unknown. Severely damaged the plane will require a new wing and fuselage. This year while in his Formula 1 plane, he gets taken out on the runway at the start. The guy needs some good luck (although he had some when he got out of PM when it caught fire as he was headed for the runway to takeoff, and this year not being any more injured than a broken hand after that mess.) I really feel for the guy. He is super cool, and very bright when it comes to making planes go fast. I can't wait to see what he does with PM in the rebuild. I hope he can get "Hot Stuff" fixed before the next race in Thailand. (There is an international Formula 1 series. He won it last year.)



Will

Wow you aren't kidding about him having bad luck! How does needing a new fuselage and wing not just qualify it as a new plane at that point? Would you mind giving me the quick version on why these races have so many WWII warbirds? I might have to make it out to Reno for the races someday soon, it looks like a great weekend.

[mrsleeve]

Would you mind giving me the quick version on why these races have so many WWII warbirds? .

Because they were/are the zenith of the piston engine go fast planes.

[LateFan]

[QUOTE=BlackbirdM3;4693649]



Is that some kind of Spitfire variation? But it has a radial and a completely different wing....

Or is that not an RAF circle on the wing and it's from somewhere else...

[LateFan]

Late Spitfire with bubble canopy....very similar markings...

[ThatM20Guy]

[QUOTE=LateFan;4693737]

Is that some kind of Spitfire variation? But it has a radial and a completely different wing....

Or is that not an RAF circle on the wing and it's from somewhere else...

Looks to me like a Hawker Sea Fury

[BlackbirdM3]

[QUOTE=LateFan;4693737]

Is that some kind of Spitfire variation? But it has a radial and a completely different wing....

Or is that not an RAF circle on the wing and it's from somewhere else...

That is indeed a Hawker Sea Fury. This one is powered by a Pratt and Whitney R2800, the same engine has a F6F Hellcat, F7f Tigercat, F8f Bearcat or a F4U Corsair. The Sea fury is normally powered by a Bristol Centaurus 18 cylinder sleeve valve engine. There was one of them racing this year. (Wonderful sound to that bird.) The Sea Fury is arguably the most advanced piston engined fighter ever built serving well into the '70s in some parts of the world. They had victories against MiGs in Korea. It was the final piston engined aircraft that the British Royal navy flew before making the transition to the De Havilland Vampire. (There were two of those racing this weekend, sadly one was lost after what was believed to be a bird strike. It was bellied in north of the airport. The good news is that the pilot and owner is going to take the pieces and rebuild another.)

Why so many WW2 planes in the Unlimited category? Well, they are the ones that have been successful. Surprisingly, many of the currently airworthy P51s in the US are here because they were rebuilt from wrecks in the '60s, 70s, and 80s. There have been a few attempts to scratch build an Unlimited racer, but they have all ended in tragedy. The best scratch build was one that looked like a very modified P51, except that it wasn't a P51 at all. It was called Tsunami. The owner killed himself in it after being told not to fly it due to a bad wing flap actuator (Only one side would deploy.) The race pilot told him not to fly the plane, but he didn't listen. He took off, and on approach to his home field, pulled the flaps on, and immediately crashed killing himself and destroying Tsunami. (The his grandson however is in the process of rebuilding Tsunami.) The other well known scratch build was called the "Pond Racer" after Bob Pond. It was powered by a pair of Nissan VG30DETT engines each pushing nearly 1000hp. It had serious issues and liked to set itself on fire. It finally did so in flight and killed the pilot. There are a few other partly built custom Unlimiteds out there, but none are that close to flying. If you have ever been curious about the air races, go. Its an amazing event that is unlike anything else in the world.

Will

[LateFan]

So what are the class rules in this racing? "Unlimited"...so maybe none..? Displacement? Number of engines?

Or is it any piston-engined, propeller-driven airplane that can go around the pylons?

[BlackbirdM3]

So what are the class rules in this racing? "Unlimited"...so maybe none..? Displacement? Number of engines?

Or is it any piston-engined, propeller-driven airplane that can go around the pylons?

An Unlimited can be any piston engined prop driven aircraft that weighs more than 5000lbs dry (I think that is the minimum weight limit. I was just looking for the rules but can't find anything specific.) There was a minimum weight limit put in place to keep the Sport class planes from entering as unlimiteds. You can run a multi engined plane, Rod Lewis runs his F7F Tigercat from time to time. A-26 Invaders have raced in the past. Back in the mid 70s there was a DC-6 that raced at Mojave.

Here are the Sea Furies that have run over the past few years.
Dreadnought, owned by the Sanders family. Nicknamed "The Buick" Powered by a 28 cylinder Pratt and Whitney R4360

Argonaut, owned by the Sanders family. R2800 powered.

924, Owned by the Sanders family, Bristol Centaurus powered.

Sawbones, Owned by Robin Crandall, raced by Astronaut Curt Brown. Wright R3350 powered.

September Fury/232, Owned by Rod Lewis. Powered by a Wright R3350 with a very rare slow nose case. Fastest Sea Fury in history. (And often the most unreliable one as well)

Furias, owned by Eric Wohlberg, Pratt and Whitney R4360 powered. This plane is currently being rebuilt after a belly landing following its qualifying run in 2012 just after this pic was taken (not my pic) Furias was the first R4360 powered Sea Fury with race history going back to the '70s (I think)

Miss Merced, owned by Eric Wohlberg. Wright R3350 powered. Was rumored to be coming to the races this year but Eric brought his T-6 instead.
This bird has race history going back to the early '70s.


Will

[LateFan]

So would a Lightning be competitive with two big supercharged engines, or too much mass? I thought they were pretty maneuverable in a fight, and fast.

[BlackbirdM3]

So would a Lightning be competitive with two big supercharged engines, or too much mass? I thought they were pretty maneuverable in a fight, and fast.

The polished Red Bull P38 is one of the most famous racers in history. It was known as "White Lightning" It was owned and raced by "Lefty" Gardner for years. Sadly, it was badly damaged after one of the superchargers threw a turbine wheel and he had to belly land the plane in the late 90s early 2000s (Might have been his son Ladd who was flying, I can't remember.) The Gardners didn't have the $ to fix it so it was sold to Red Bull who spent huge $$$$ to restore it, only they omitted the planes real history and went with just a polished finish.





It would take a lot to make a P38 competitive in the Gold group. This is a what if racer a friend of mine came up with.





He made it Rolls Royce Griffon powered, with a full total loss boil off system for cooling. Its a cool idea.

Will

[Kershaw]

[BlackbirdM3]

Wow you aren't kidding about him having bad luck! How does needing a new fuselage and wing not just qualify it as a new plane at that point?

Precious Metal was never a real P-51. It was made of P-51 parts and custom parts, but its official designation with the FAA is a P-51XR. I think the fuselage may be mostly salvageable, but there is concern that the wing spar was heat damaged (apparently 6061 Aluminum that needs to be heat treated.) They are taking the parts to someone here in California for the rebuild. I don't know if its going to the guys in Salinas, or Chino or perhaps Bakersfield. I have a feeling that when it makes its return however, its going to be very very fast. It wouldn't surprise me at all if they did some very custom work to clean up drag areas that normally wouldn't be addressed due to the amount of work to do them. Since its all got to come apart anyway, odds are they will make some BIG changes.
Precious Metal in 2014






Will

[LateFan]

"White Lightning"

I didn't know anyone raced one, cool

I love that plane. My top three are probably P51, Spitfire, and P38 Lightning.

P38 is the one that flew hundreds of miles across open ocean just above sea level to intercept Yamamoto and shoot him down.

[LateFan]

Kershaw - are those two little tiny turbofan engines on that thing? They're enuf to pull it like that? Amazing.