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Contrails: Escape From Plenty

By Steve Weaver

Autumn in West Virginia. (Steve Weaver)Autumn has worked its way down the slopes of the Appalachians and colored the leaves in the foothills of West Virginia, the place where I was born and where I now spend the six warm months each year. Looking down the bank outside my window into the slow drifting waters of the Buckhannon River I can see flotillas of gaily colored leaves making their way downstream to the place they will come to rest and slowly turn to soil.

It’s said that autumn is a time to reflect and I think that must be so, because I find I do most of my deep (deep being a relative word here) thinking about life in general, and my life in particular, during this time of year.

A few days ago in such a state, I started pondering how the business of selling airplanes has changed in the last dozen years or so and about how completely my life has changed during the same period.

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Mister Mulligan: Golden Age Race Winner with a Fine Irish Name

By Alan Smith

Benny Howard’s Mister Mulligan, 1935 winner of both Bendix and Thompson trophies. (San Diego Air & Space Museum)As air racing’s Golden Age of the 1930s went on, the design of new racers continued to lead advancement in both military and civil aviation. In 1935, Benny Howard’s high wing monoplane Mister Mulligan was a classic example of this. With Gordon Israel as co-pilot, Howard won the cross country Bendix from the west coast to Cleveland and then with Harold Neumann as pilot, Mulligan went on to win the Thompson Trophy. The Bendix trophy was won partly because Howard and Israel used on-board oxygen for the first time and stayed above the weather. The oxygen system was another racing innovation passed on to other designers in the military and civil aviation world.

1935 was really Benny Howard’s year of triumph. Not only did Mulligan win both the Bendix and the Thompson, but Neumann also won the Greve Trophy in Howard’s little Mike racer.

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T-6 Class Gets Stronger at Reno 2012

By Alan Smith

Nick Macy on way to Gold race victory. (Victor Archer)As the only “one design” class at the National Championship Air Races, high performance in the AT-6 class has, for years, been primarily dependent on pilot skill that minimize wasted distance on the oval race course and puts one airplane into the lead. There are, however, permitted airframe “cleanups” that, when properly done, can significantly increase the top speed of a T-6.

For example, the stock T-6 wing skins are riveted in place with domed rivets. For racing, these are replaced with flathead rivets flushed into the wing. Landing lights are removed and the wing fiberglassed back to the main spar. There are many other small things that can be done to reduce drag and increase speed. And, of course, a racing T-6 has been repainted in vivid colors and is highly polished. I have been told, by some racing T-6 owners, that even selecting the right polishing compound can have a positive effect.

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The Pylon Place - September 2012

Reno Air Racing Prep - 2012

By Marilyn Dash

Keeping up with the news surrounding the Reno Air Races this year has been exhausting. Racers and fans alike have so many questions, i.e., are we racing, what changes will we see, who will be there, who won’t, will the fans notice any changes? These are all good questions. I hope that I have, through this column, helped everyone understand what the process has been following the horrific event of September 16, 2011. I have tried to listen to the questions the fans have been asking and answer them here.

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Editorial: A Fly-By for Neil

By Ed Downs

Regular readers of In Flight USA may have picked up on the fact that editorial opinions and the fun of connecting flying with space sciences come from the unsettled mind of a single person, this writer. It was planned to follow our standard two-topic format in September. But history intervened to change those plans. A remarkable person, test pilot and astronaut passed away, and those who remember when this country was proud of its scientific accomplishments took a moment to reflect. Neil Armstrong is gone. The passing of this great American connects opinion, feelings, flying and science together in a way that warrants that only one story should be written this time. Please know that the staff of In Flight USA, plus every aviator and astronomer I know extends their most heart felt sympathies and condolences to Neil’s family and friends, for their loss is unspeakable. Indeed, God speed, Neil.

This writer was in his hotel room after a long day of teaching a Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic, tired and sore from standing for more than 10 hours. But the evening was not over. Research was needed to confirm some facts and numbers before continuing with this month Skies to Stars column. With a cross country planned to the Moon, it was time to fire up the computer, unfurl a detailed Moon map, and consider how I would locate my destination, the Apollo 11 landing site. The quest for data clarification started with a search engine entry regarding Apollo 11 technical information, but I was stopped cold in my tracks. Almost every search link connected to some comment about the passing of Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11 and the first man to set foot on the moon. This was the first I had heard of this news. I fired up the TV and confirmed that a person I had never met, but considered a friend and mentor, was gone. An era was at an end, like so many “eras” of scientific adventure and courage that have come to an end in recent times.

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Contrails

Living Without Wheels

By Steve Weaver

Instructor Russ Weaver (no relation, Billie Sue Nester, student, Steve Weaver and friend David Austin. (Courtesy of Steve Weaver)Stopped at a traffic light this week, I noticed the car in front of me sported a license plate holder that proclaimed that the owner’s other car was an airplane. I thought back to a time when I could have used a license holder that said “My other airplane is an airplane,” but then I wouldn’t have had a car to attach it to.

There have probably been other aviation zealots, who have owned two airplanes without owning a car, but I’ve never met another one and it was a strange set of circumstances that caused me to be in such a position.

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Air Racing: Competition Continues to Improve Design

By Alan Smith

The Lancair “Legacy” races at Reno in the Sport Class. (Jan Peters)Any kind of motorsport provides a form of on-site engineering test and function improvement, and air racing has definitely contributed to the development of high performance aircraft. During the so-called Golden Age of air racing that went on for ten years prior to the second World War, wing flaps, retractable landing gear, engine superchargers and variable pitch propellers all came from determination to win the Thompson and Greve trophies. Even the high performance monoplane came out of that period in a racer named the Mystery Ship that won the first Thompson trophy race in 1929. Designed and built at the Travel Air company in the American Midwest, it defeated some of the best military aircraft the armed forces of the United States could come up with.

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Sentimental Journey: A Living Legend

By Paul Tannahill

Emitting a belch of white smoke, the number three engine of Sentimental Journey slowly comes to life. With a cost of over $2000 an hour (and climbing) to operate, continued public support and donations are imperative to keeping this important piece of history alive. (Paul Tannahill) Smoke wafts through the fuselage catching in the light that streams through the windows as one by one each of the Wright R-1820-97 Cyclone engines belches to life before settling down to a smooth rumble. Crewmember Robert Morril watches intently as each one turns over, looking for any signs of an issue. There are none. Slowly taxiing to the runway, the breaks emit a low groan as they work. Run up on an aircraft of this type takes a bit of time, but eventually we creep out to the runway centerline. With a steady surge of power and a roar like thunder the aircraft trundles down the runway.

As we lift from the ground I glance towards Robert and though he has done this countless times before, a wide grin stretches from ear to ear. I’m sure I look about the same. Undoubtedly, our reaction to the experience is quite the opposite of the feelings of the thousands of Flying Fortress crews as they took off to fly into the deadly unknown of the skies above Europe so many years ago. They are the brave individuals who truly made this glorious aircraft the icon it is today.

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