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After 27 of shaving the sticks and 26 of those strapped to a Bearcat it has come to an end. Howard has hung up the racing helmet.
My tribute to him from this years races:
Enjoy!
Please ask Howard to take good care of my airplane.
It stioll blows me away at how fast that plane is for a 100% box stock plane. I am also totally impressed at Howards ability to not lose speed in the turns. What was his fastest lap this year? I heard 420mph. Thats what wikipedia lists the max speed for the Bearcat at 20kft. Blows me away.
Great shots Steve
Hate to hear Howard's hanging it up, but appreciate the opportunity he has given us to watch him round the pylons all these years.
Had a great time talking to you and your dad this year.
Russ
Stock Bearcats were wicked machines when they came out, and for some time after. Too bad we didn't have them earlier in the war.
Looking up specs, top speed is rated at 421 mph, so Howard's bird is right up there where it should be.
Stock Bearcats were wicked machines when they came out, and for some time after. Too bad we didn't have them earlier in the war.
Looking up specs, top speed is rated at 421 mph, so Howard's bird is right up there where it should be.
In reality, we were caught so far out at the beginning of WWII, it's a miracle of, then, "modern" production that we were able to pull out of where we found ourselves!
There are some fictionalized accounts of where we might have wound up, one of which, was done by the creator of "Extreme Air Racing".. a "what if" thing, where the Germans were not quite as devastated as they were, were able to continue with their advanced design programs, had been able to create the machines they had in the works..
Do any of us realize how much we owe to the visionaries during that time who came forward, took the risks and fought the fight?
English as a second language would, very likely, be part of our Germanic daily life, had they not done what they did, when they did it!
Do any of us realize how much we owe to the visionaries during that time who came forward, took the risks and fought the fight?
QUOTE]
You also have to realize that it was '30's air racers like Tony LeVier, Bob Hall, Gordon Israel and others that were instrumental in the development of those planes...D.
In reality, we were caught so far out at the beginning of WWII, it's a miracle of, then, "modern" production that we were able to pull out of where we found ourselves!
Yes and no. Yes, "Air Biscuit" was the best the Navy had in 1941, and "Sneak Attack" (and an earlier version of White Lightnin') were the best the Army Air Forces had. But for all they lacked in some of the advancements of the Zero and BF-109, they were still superior in other ways. Longer range (P-38) than the BF-109, and better armor and self-sealing fuel tanks (all USAAF and USN) than the Japanese airplanes.
I'm in the middle of a book on the 8th air force ('Masters of the Air') that makes several good points. What hamstrung us early war was a mistaken belief that certain things were "simply impossible, or at least utterly impractical," when they actually weren't beyond the technology of the time. A classic example of something that was thought "impossible" was a fighter aircraft that could simultaneously do three things: 1) fly as far and high as a B-17, 2) cruise as fast as a B-24, and 3) still have fuel and payload to fight with when it got to the end of its mission. Ironically, the Germans also thought such an aircraft was either impossible or impractical until they saw Mustangs over the Rhineland. Also, "wrong thinking with the right hardware" occurred a lot and is so clear in hindsight you have to wonder what preconceptions caused it to happen. An example is using the early Mustang for ground attack and the P-47 for air superiority, when both were far better suited to the opposite jobs.
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