As the days count down towards Reno 2022 Team Miss America continues their work on the aircraft to make an appearance at the LibertyFest (Edmond, OK) on the 4th of July but also prepare the aircraft for racing in September. As seen in the photo above, you immediately notice that the belly scoop was removed - which gave the aircraft a somewhat "Stilettoish" look. The gear doors clamped closed added to that look, and also made for a lot more room under the airframe to allow the crew to work on her. I was often curious why the belly scoop had that long extension on the front as shown in the first photo below. The third & forth photos show why; the connection at the center of the wing is pretty substantial with the oversized connection plate. This is normally hidden entirely by the stock scoop's design, so something had to be done to streamline that area.
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This week when we first arrived we saw team member Greg Butler working on removing the fuel pumps so the newly remanufactured ones could be installed when they arrive. The 1st photo below shows the pumps following removal. The unit on the left is a modified stock P-51 pump but the right pump is actually modified F-86 fuel pump. North American didn't reinvent the wheel too much when they designed the F-86 as the fuel pump uses the same connection flange & basic design. Where they differ is the F-86 pump has both a high & low setting, allowing Brent to increase the fuel pressure from approximately 40psi to 60psi for racing. The F-86 pump also has a 1" return line as opposed to the P-51 pump at 3/4". Nice to be able to have that plug-and-play option for race applications and a part that isn't too difficult to source. Both pumps have been modified with stainless steel impellors to deal with the corrosive effects of the ADI (a water/methanol mix), the 160 octane gas, & liquid manganese). Speaking of which, you can see when looking closely at the screens that the pump for ADI/spray-bar water in photo #2 shows more corrosion than the pump in photo #3 (used for race gas/liquid manganese). Seeing this, it's easy to understand why the impellors have been replaced with stainless steel ones on both units.
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Another area being addressed involved doing the final adjustments on the horizontal trim tabs and as you can see in photos #1 & #2 below, they're spot on. Photo #3 shows you what Brent's office looks like, and the four key gauges which he'll be monitoring. Brent noted that the LED gauge lights have certainly reduced cockpit workload - a lot easier to see when you're running in the green then have to focus momentarily on each gauge to interpret needle location.
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We talked a little last week about the heat exchanger and how it was located in the luggage compartment behind the pilot. I asked Greg to clarify how the system worked... he explained that the heat exchanger receives cooled fluid from the aftercooler radiator (located directly below). Then the discharged coolant is sent to the aftercooler located in the engine bay, then that discharge returns back to the aftercooler radiator to be cooled again and repeat the cycle. Photo #1 & #2 below show the heat exchanger as located in the aircraft luggage compartment behind the pilot. Note that the stock P-51H heat exchanger end caps have also been modified with larger diameter fittings to allow for increased flow. The last two photos are just detail shots of the wiring forward of the cockpit... nothing special but I thought quite interesting.
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That's all for this week's update... We expect some big changes in the next couple of weeks as the team prepares Miss America back to flying status - more coming soon!
