Speed record attempt 8-27-17 with P-51 Voodoo

[dale gleason]

Speaking of Bristol sleeve valve radial engines, Youtube has a great exploded view animation of the sleeve-valve, it's nothing short of amazing. To me, anyway.

dg

[Randy Powell]

Calling the Rare Bear a Grumman F8F Bearcat is kinda funny. I think it has about 15% of it is original parts. Sort of like calling a car with new frame, engine, transmission, suspension, rear end, brakes, wiring and interior but with a 56 Chevy body on it, a 56 Chevy.

[Air Ministry .]

Greenameyers was a mixture of series , undoubtably the Merlin is too .

Later versions produced 2200 H.P. , same as a ( production ) Griffon .

Usually post war Cannadair heads and blocks , for their thicker / stiffer decks ,

Though here in Australia the last ( most debugged ?? ) Merlin Tooling was used for C.A.C. produced Merlins , for the C.A.C. Avro Lincoln .post WWII

Greenameyers Bearcat ran 10 %  Nitro , in the Methanol ( Dunno about Castor  ) after 20 % sorta disolved a bit an engine , the exhaust sorta roasted the paint trim .



Firs to officially wrest it from the nazis , anyway .

[Air Ministry .]

Beat This , Snoopy ,

[dave siegler]

FAI Record File Num #8437
Status:  ratified - retired by changes of the sporting code 
Region:  World 
Class:  C (Powered Aeroplanes) 
Sub-Class:  C-1 (Landplanes) 
Category:  Not applicable 
Group:  1 : internal combustion engine 
Type of record:  Speed over a 3 km course 
Performance:  850.24 km/h 
Date:  1989-08-21 
Course/Location:  Las Vegas, NM (USA) 
Claimant  Lyle Shelton (USA) 
 Grumman F-8F "Bearcat"   (N7771)
Engine: 1 Wright R-3350 Duplex cyclone

so if this is a retired record what is the record now? 

[TigreST]

Calling the Rare Bear a Grumman F8F Bearcat is kinda funny. I think it has about 15% of it is original parts. Sort of like calling a car with new frame, engine, transmission, suspension, rear end, brakes, wiring and interior but with a 56 Chevy body on it, a 56 Chevy.

Randy,
You start with the S/N builder plate..and go from there.  If the S/N is correct..then that's what (make and model) aircraft it is.   

[Bob Heywood]

so if this is a retired record what is the record now?

There is no longer a single Absolute Speed record for piston powered, prop driven aircraft. Instead there are a series of Classifications based upon the gross take-off weight for the airplane. So, Voodoo set the record for its weight class. The record they surpassed had been set by one of the newly constructed Allison powered Yak-3 fighters.

FAI Record File Num #16379
Status:  ratified - current record 
Region:  World 
Class:  C (Powered Aeroplanes) 
Sub-Class:  C-1d (Landplanes: take off weight 1750 to 3000 kg) 
Category:  Not applicable 
Group:  1 : internal combustion engine 
Type of record:  Speed over a 3 km course 
Performance:  669.53 km/h 
Date:  2011-10-11 
Course/Location:  Wendover, UT (USA) 
Claimant  Will Whiteside Jr (USA) 
 Yakovlev YAK-3U   (N46463)

But...

Among the fans and the Voodoo Team, the target was besting Rare Bear's record speed by 1% or more. It means nothing officially but would have felt pretty good and silenced the naysayers. That didn't quite happen. We'll just have to wait and see what the future holds.

[Bob Heywood]

From the F.A.I. Sporting Code:

3.1 CLASSIFICATION OF RECORDS
3.1.1 Classes
Aeroplane records (with the exception of Absolute World Records) shall be classified
in one of the following classes:
Class C Aeroplanes
Class H Jetlift
3.1.2 Class C Records
Class C records (with the exception of Absolute World Records) shall further be
classified as one of the following:
C-1 Landplanes
C-2 Seaplanes
C-3 Amphibians
3.1.3 Weight Classification
Aeroplane records (with the exception of Absolute World Records and Speed Over a
Commercial Airline Route records) shall be further classified by weight as follows:
a/o weight less than 300 kg
a weight 300 kg to less than 500 kg
b weight 500 kg to less than 1,000 kg
c weight 1,000 kg to less than 1,750 kg
d weight 1,750 kg to less than 3,000 kg
e weight 3,000 kg to less than 6,000 kg
f weight 6,000 kg to less than 9,000 kg
g weight 9,000 kg to less than 12,000 kg
h weight 12,000 kg to less than 16,000 kg
i weight 16,000 kg to less than 20,000 kg
j weight 20,000 kg to less than 25,000 kg
k weight 25,000 kg to less than 35,000 kg
l weight 35,000 kg to less than 45,000 kg
m weight 45,000 kg to less than 60,000 kg
n weight 60,000 kg to less than 80,000 kg
o weight 80,000 kg to less than 100,000 kg
p weight 100,000 kg to less than 150,000 kg
q weight 150,000 kg to less than 200,000 kg
r weight 200,000 kg to less than 250,000 kg
s weight 250,000 kg to less than 300,000 kg
t weight 300,000 kg to less than 400,000 kg
u weight 400,000 kg to less than 500,000 kg
v weight 500,000 kg and greater

There are still Absolute Records but that is the domain of planes like the X-15 and SR-71. Way out of our league...

[Lyle Spiegel]

I'm at Reno this week. Got to watch Voodoo race yesterday, Steveo came in 2nd,was beat by the Strega. They will race again this afternoon, and again for Gold on Sunday.

[Bob Heywood]

I'm at Reno this week. Got to watch Voodoo race yesterday, Steveo came in 2nd,was beat by the Strega. They will race again this afternoon, and again for Gold on Sunday.

Did you grab a t-shirt?

[Lyle Spiegel]

I certainly did. Saw Voodoo race Sat afternoon,came in 2nd again behind Srega. Win today would have given Steveo pole position for Gold final tomorrow, but not meant to be. Looking forward to seeing Voodoo win final on Sunday.
There was an awsume airshow put on by the Texas Air Museum team today, and some very close races in all the classes.
Its an experiance of a lifetime to be here and see and hear and smell the planes upclose .

[dave siegler]

could not make it this year. 

My brother and long time combat flier and nats winner wrenches on the formula 1 airplanes. 

This year he was crew chief for #6 AeroMagic and they qualified faster than ever and won the Silver class.

Congratulations Tom! 

[Lyle Spiegel]

Final race for Voodoo was exciting, first few laps Voodoo was in the lead but Strega closed in and finally took over and won the gold. Big disappointment for Voodoo team, but many folks were rooting for Strega. Race was a nail biter