| 03/27/99 AAFO.COM UPDATE
 For
those of us awaiting the next "Reno", the
stretch of time from September to September
seems a limitless, month-after-month grind of watchful
anticipation. The teams working to make the already very
fast Reno pylon racers faster have quite another view. To
them, the cycle of the seasons moves forward at the
accelerated pace of the airplanes they seek to make
faster. They race the succession of months with the same
competitive zeal as the pilots racing the seconds of the
pylon stopwatch. But their race against time never seems
to allow enough of the precious commodity to do
what is needed. The desire to go faster fuels a never
ending quest, hard working crews (mostly volunteer) labor
night-and-day, year-round, to achieve their goals - Race
teams become families, families parts of teams. - This
need
for speed becomes nearly an obsession for everyone
involved, bringing forth a level of dedication by the
participants hard to measure by normal standards.
All of the airplanes that take the Reno
pylons are fast, but faster is better and only the
fastest achieve the goal -Taking
home the Gold!- Going faster is all
about details, even the smallest thing can sometimes make
the difference. Many times, a lot of small things add up
to one measurable gain. Those of us that attend the
annual speed-fest at Reno see merely the end result of
the long and tireless efforts of those that bring this
grand event to reality. Without the effort and dedication
of hundreds of team members across the country -there
simply would be no "Reno"-
.......Dedication and attention to
detail is what this story is about.........
Since
first
hearing of the airplane we now know as Miss Ashley II
and the combination of engine, airframe and wing that
were being used, we've kept a close eye on the progress
of the Levitz-Rogers Racing Team. Last year's addition of
Nitrous
injection and the beautiful carbon fiber leading
edge, brought their speed potential up several notches,
prompting one wry pit observer, Brad Haskin, to comment
-"Gary's got the rubber band wound a bit tighter
this year"- Indeed, he did- But
problems
encountered during the flights at Reno put a bit of slack
back into MA2's "rubber band".
The
Rolls Royce Griffon, used by the Levitz/Rogers
Racing-Miss Ashley II, though substantially larger in
cubic inches, (as well as in physical size) produces less
power than a race trimmed version of its little brother,
the Merlin. By far, the more commonly used engine in the
Mustangs raced at Reno, the Merlin has a history of
hot-rodding going back to the beginning of the current
air racing series. There exists a bag of speed tricks for
the racing Merlin that is deep and well known by most
race teams using it. The decision by Levitz-Rogers Racing
to use the far more plentiful Griffon put them in the
position of breaking new ground to find more power for
this particular variant of the wonderful Rolls Royce V-12
series. But the formula for going fast around the pylons
at Reno is not just about wringing as much extra power as
possible out of whatever engine is used. Drag on the
airframe means more power to overcome it, finding ways to
make the airframe more "slick" is, at least, as
important as finding more power to pull the airplane
through the air.
Bill
Rogers and company have been looking at just this formula
since the first
piece of metal was bent and the first rivet head
counter-sunk and flattened on their sleek racer. When we
last talked with the team, we reported the plans for
improving engine performance (like putting one in that
was running on all the cyls :) as well as modifications
to be made in the area of the belly scoop on MA2. The air
scoop for the P-51 Mustang provides cooling for the
engine coolant radiator, as well as the oil cooler. It
has long been known as an area where airflow improvements
can yield large speed gains. When we heard about changes
to be made to the scoop, quite honestly, we expected to
see modifications on MA2 that were consistent with what
is seen on Dago Red, Strega and Voodoo...... We were in
for a big surprise!
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