| 07/27/99 AAFO.COM UPDATE 
By the time you read this, one of the most
radical race planes to ever challenge the high desert
pylons at Reno, will be well on her way to the official
debut of her new look at the EAA Convention at Oshkosh. We've
been promising to provide the first look at the newly
modified Miss Ashley II for a long time here at the
"-Inside Air Racing-"
division of
AAFO.COM
-
Well, here it is!
We've been watching this race team very
closely since our
first look at the
unknown, paintless airplane, over two years ago. 1997 saw
Miss Ashley II's first go at the Reno pylons result in a
distinctly respectable fourth place finish. With only 50
hours on her tach, this scratch-built airplane and her
team, firmly placed themselves on top the "racers to
watch" list. Since that time, the Levitz Rogers
Racing Team has worked virtually non-stop to improve on
the original design and incorporate major changes to the
already slick airframe. This latest modification is the
most noticeable visual change to date.
AAFO.COM
first learned of the
plans for a radical new belly scoop design being readied
for MA2 earlier this year... and, as promised, we've kept
our mouths shut..... (with GREAT difficulty we might
add!).... Until NOW! Miss Ashley II designer/builder,
Bill Rogers, actually let the cat out of the bag, (well
sort of), in an
interview with him
late in 1998. We were talking about the ingestion of an
airborne fowl by the Lear winged hybrid racer early in
the 1998 Gold event. (exact species still unknown at
present... DNA test results were inconclusive ;-)
What was known at the time, was that the bird had
excellent eyesight and timing, being able to both spot
the contra rotating twin three prop combo of Miss Ashley
II's massive Griffon and time the passage through them,
totally intact, only to find the irresistible force of
the intake scoop on the upper cowling. "It shows
just how efficient those NACA ducts are" said an
amused and disbelieving Rogers, after finding the remains
of the "unknown avian soldier" lodged within
the confines of the Griffon's intake system. And yes,
that intake scoop housed in the upper cowling of the
Griff's shrouds is, indeed, a bona fide NACA duct.
With that thought firmly lodged in their minds,
Rogers and company began to re-think a project they had
not had time to bring to fruition in the original build
of the racer.... That plan was to create a completely
different intake scoop design for the cooling system. For
many years, Reno has fostered design after design in this
area of the P-51 based airplanes raced in this sport.
Fairly high speed gains have been achieved with several
of the attempts in this area. One aircraft, Stiletto,
completely removed the belly cooling system replacing it
with a boil-off, wing based cooling design. The design
did well enough to win her the Reno '84 championship
(this airplane has since been restored to totally stock
configuration).
NACA ducts are known commodities,
you'll see them on very fast race cars as well as on many
commercial aircraft. A design phenomenon, NACA ducts,
essentially, present a flat surface to the approaching
airflow. This does leave the drag factor of the internal
ducting and cooling components to be dealt with and this
is an area of cooling system design, of which, NO team is
eager to divulge details! The formula for the sizing of
the NACA inlet and duct, requires a distance from the oil
cooler and radiator not
available on a conventional winged Mustang. Due
to these limitations, the NACA has never successfully
been used on a "stock" Mustang configured Reno
Racer. Enter MA2 and her hybrid "LearStang"
configuration, allowing an additional 18 inches between
the radiator and gear doors. The door for successful
implementation of NACA duct cooling, on a Mustang based
airplane, opens......wide!
As of this writing, test pilot, Skip
Holm, after successfully completing initial flight
testing of the new design, has begun the first leg of his
trip to OSHKOSH. Much work remains to complete the total
package for MA2's run at Reno '99. Additional nitrous and
telemetry systems, are among the improvements still to be
added for this year. New gear doors and a much stronger
system to raise the gear and keep the gear doors closed 
are already completed.
(problems in this area plagued the team last year) The
story of the Levitz-Rogers, Desothane
HS Topcoat System, Miss Ashley
II "LearStang" is far from completed! Stay
tuned to AAFO.COM's "-Inside Air Racing-"
coverage of this Reno National Championship Air Races
entry.......
Story and photos -Wayne Sagar-
Special thanks to the Levitz-Rogers Racing Team for
taking the time out of their extremely busy work schedule
to pull the racer out of the hanger and ready her for our
photo shoot!
{Editors note: We were witness to a
race team working with un-stoppable determination and
unity of purpose in the last stages of getting this
airplane ready for the flight to Oshkosh. People from
neighboring hangers at Paine Field dropping by to say
hello, then joining in the work for hours on end shows
the intoxicating allure of this project. The dedication
of these men and women of the sport of air racing and
those who contribute their skills to further their goals,
continues to foster awe and admiration in this writer. A
project, such as Miss Ashley II, is simply mind boggling
in its scale and complexity, yet it is done! To create
such a beautiful example of machine art, primarily from
raw materials and imagination... Words can not describe
my feelings. We beat the photo lab in our publishing
deadline for this story, there are many more photographs
of the effort and the final product. Some of the final
roll we shot is seen here (thanks to COSTCO 1hr lab!),
there is no way these photos convey the actual feeling of
seeing this airplane sitting on the ramp finally
completed! She was completely breathtaking! Prior to
beginning writing about it, I watched this sport for many
years from the grandstands and as a casual observer in
the pits. There is simply no way to understand the amount
of work and personal sacrifice by the teams that race at
Reno until you experience, first hand, the effort
involved to get such an airplane ready for flight after a
massive redesign/rebuild. Our hat is off to this fine
group of motorsport competitors and all those who help
bring such beauty to life!}
The 1999 Reno National
Championship Air Races Will Be Held September 16-19 At
Stead Field, Reno Nevada. Qualifying and Practice Events
Run September 13-15 And Offers Some Of The Most Exciting
Action Of The Entire Week. For Ticket And Lodging
Information go to:
http://www.airrace.org
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