Yeah, there are plenty of us on here that are Cleveland Race fans and air race fans in general. I'm home today sick and feeling a little light headed, so I may ramble a bit. I have been watching air racing in general since they were presented on ABC's Wide World of Sports back in the 60's. I think they started with the second edition of the Reno Air races when they started flying at Stead Airfield.I would sneak looks at any coverage in Air Progress magazine at the drug store ( I couldn't afford to buy them) and my older brother Tom made me one of the happiest people on the face of the earth when he took me and my younger brother Jim to some air races held here in St. Louis in 1970 that had sport biplane, formula one and T-6 classes along with a great air show. I saw an airplane crash for the first time in my life when a Pitts Special lost power just as the pack turned the scatter pylon at the start of the race. He dropped like a rock, bounced once on the wheels and flipped over. I don't recall the fate ofo the pilot by there was no delay in the event, so he must have escaped unscathed. Years later, Chris McMillin did much the same thing for me when he invited me out to Reno to crew on his Pitts Special in the Sport Biplane class.Again it was heaven on earth for me. I got to see that beautiful red and white Super Corsair in person and see it when it landed from it's trip from his home base up north, and it only had about 3 hours on it since restoration. We scrambled to the parking area where it would be shown and since it was that new, the rings were not fully seated and oil was gleaning along the length of the fuselage, and as they wiped the airplane down, it just seemed to get shinier! Cook Cleland was there and was quite surprised to see his former race mount. He was unaware that it still existed. The story behind the F2G Cosairs from their inception to today is really amazing. In short, they were powered by the largest piston engine available, Pratt and Whitney 4360, I believe, and were intended at Kamikaze chasers. 14 were built, and I don't think they saw any action before the war ended. The post war Cleveland Air Races had started up, and Mustangs were a dominant mount and available for a pittance of their original price. There were a few scattered Corsairs but were not up to the challenge. Cleland was still a Navy Reserve officer at the time, if I remember correctly, and he got the ear of a high ranking Admiral and asked to "borrow" the Super Corsairs. Three were made available for the effort, the red and white #57, the blue and white #74 and the all white #94. The exact race record for the three escapes me right now but would be considered successful since they are iconic in aviation history. The white #94 was left to rot and burned after the races were halted, and the same fate almost fell to the other two, but they were rescued by a farmer in Ohio named Bob Soplatta, who became legend for his ability to locate, and retrieve whole air frames of significant aircraft using nothing but his own two hands, and old school bus and recruiting his two children to help!. Imagine dis assembling a complete B-25 bomber and hauling it back to the farm with just that!. The Red/white #57 was restored by Bob Odegard, who managed to acquire both of the F2G's from Soplatta, and eventually had both restored and flying in their original colors. Unfortunately, Odegard was killed in the crash of #74 while practicing for an airshow. The #57 is still flying, and a few of the other F2G's still remain in museums. Out of the 14 built, I think 6 still survive, which is amazing!
I think the Beguine racer was mentioned. It crashed following a high speed stall while running in the 1949 edition of the Cleveland Air Races. It crashed into a house in near by Berea, Ohio and killed a young mother and her child. This brought about the end of the Cleveland Air Race era. I had heard an urban legand that there is a known stunt flyer that lived in that town as a youngster who has posession of a landing gear door from The Beguine. I do not know if that is true or not.
If you like this era of air race history, you have to have a copy of the book "Wet Wings and Drop Tanks." It is chock full of photos and history aboput the planes and pilots of the Cleveland Races and Bendix Trophy Cross Country Races. Jimmy Stuart was an owner of a P-51C called The Thunderbird that was piloted by Joe DeBona and won the Bendix Trophy one year. I was watching a documentary about Stuart on TV one time, and as it covered his home town it showed a shot of the store front of his father's hardware store. In the window stood the shiny Bendix Trophy in all it's glory!. There was at least one DeHavilland Mosquito involved in the Bendix Races, and was owned and flown by Don Bussart and called, obviously, "The Wooden Wonder." It wasn't all that successful, but I have a clipping from a 1949 St. Louis Star Times news paper that shows Bussart and my Uncle Bob McEntee standing next to the port engine and landing gear. Bussart intended on making an attempt at the round the world speed record and drought the airplane to St. Louis for some prep work. My Uncle Bob was Service Manager for the Brayton Flying Service at Lambert Field at that time. I don't know any details about if the attempt was ever made, but you can read all about the Brayton Flying Service and my Uncle Bob in the May, 1949 issue of Air Trails magazine.
In 2010, there was the tragic crash of the Galloping Ghost Unlimited racer at Reno, killing several people including pilot Jimmy Leeward and several spectators. We'll just leave that alone for now, but the airplane did compete at Cleveland in the post war air races. I have a friend who ran a local motorcycle parts shop, and another customer that had come in for years, and turns out he crewed on the Galloping Ghost in the Cleveland years, and saved ALL of his memorabilia from that time. He lent it to my friend and I was able to photograph it all. The story behind this is incredible to say the least. The owners of the airplane were two Indian farmer brothers, who after the war ended, wanted to get involved in the post war races and purchase a surplus Mustang. The problem was that one brother had not been discharged yet and could not make the last day of the sale where the planes where made available. He made a few promises and pulled a few strings and had one set aside for him. The only time they flew the airplane was at Cleveland. The first year they flew it in stock condition, but afterwards, they started looking into modifications. They learned how to profile the wing, and the story goes that it was so polished that you could not set a rag on the wing without it sliding off! Along the way they acquired a water injection system and spray bars from a local aviation school and each year they improved on their finish in the standings, and were actually making money. The final year, 1949, they were given some sort of "hot" fuel to run in the plane and it finished fourth, not too far behind Cook Cleland. I can not remember this gentleman's name that crewed for them, but it's amazing that he thought to save all this stuff. He even had a copy of the letter they sent to the star football player Red Grange, who went by that nick name and had it copyrighted, asking him for permission to use the name on the airplane and he agreed. This same gentleman also restored vintage motorcycles and had a 1911 Indian, that was invited to run at 100th anniversary of the Isle of Man TT races. I have yet to meet him in person but hope to while he is still on this planet.
So yeah, there are some of us who are sorts into this air race thing!. Now it's time for some medicine and a nap!
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: Post War Air Races (Read 14650 times)