Re: American Spirit, Shockwave, Lear Solution, Tsunami
Tsunami's outcome could have been much different had the owner listened to Skip and not tried to fly the thing home himself. MAII was something that would have been difficult to avoid I think.
As for guys bringing stockers and souping them up, what about Dusty and Full Noise? Between 2015 and 2016 Dusty found nearly 60mph qualifying speed. Race speeds, in 2015 he ran 321 for a 3rd place in silver, in 2016 he won silver at 376. Some major work went into the plane between 15 and 16. Full Noise ran 315 in the Sunday gold in 2017, and 352 in the Sunday gold in 2018. Both Dusty and Graeme have been working on their planes since they last raced, and when they do make it back, should be faster still. Dusty is looking for 400+ while running an R1830. Steadfast needed an R2000 to do that, and even then, he barely made 400.
As far as Run What you Brung, I'd say Jeff LeVelle took that and ran with it this past year. I think there is a good chance that we will see him run faster this year.
Looking forward, I'd say in 5 years or so, we are going to have an amazing Unlimited Gold. There is a chance that Tsunami will be ready, Shockwave might be done, and other projects that are in the works although not public yet might appear. We might see other as yet unknown projects appear as well. The Sport guys are pretty well tapped out in terms of speed, so if they want to go faster, they are either going to have to spend HUGE sums of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a whole lot of reengineering or somehow blend the future with the past and run something with a Merlin, Griffon, R2800/3350/4360 simply to get the power they need to go 450+. Who knows, perhaps someone will buy American Sprit, and make that work because it will cost less than making a Legacy or Glasair run 450. (A strange though perhaps, but think about it.) The increase in speed of the Unlimiteds came on the backs of cleaner airframes and more powerful engines. A stock Merlin is roughly double the hp of the fastest Sport engine, but it won't move a Mustang 400+. The Sport engines are going to need insane amounts of boost, as well as more displacement to run 420, and there really isn't any viable way to get there short of engineering a whole new engine. ($$$$$$$$$$$) The airframes need to be aerodynamically perfect, and redesigned/reinforced to run that fast. Heck, the Legacy VNE is about 275 I think. They are WAY beyond that. At what point do we see wings or tails come off? I guess Sport class could embrace the Turboprop and go that route to find the power, but you still have to address the structure of the airframe. The Sport class guys aren't afraid to play with carbon fiber, so who's to say someone won't get some crazy idea like the Lear Solution, and actually build it out of carbon fiber? I think it comes down to the concept of speed costs $, how fast do you want to go? Do you invent a new engine that will produce the power, or do you buy a proven 80+ year old design, and build an aircraft around it? Either way you are looking at big $$$$$$$$. At least with the 80 year old engine, people have proven they can build a reliable one that will make the power required.
Will
Originally posted by AAFO_WSagar
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As for guys bringing stockers and souping them up, what about Dusty and Full Noise? Between 2015 and 2016 Dusty found nearly 60mph qualifying speed. Race speeds, in 2015 he ran 321 for a 3rd place in silver, in 2016 he won silver at 376. Some major work went into the plane between 15 and 16. Full Noise ran 315 in the Sunday gold in 2017, and 352 in the Sunday gold in 2018. Both Dusty and Graeme have been working on their planes since they last raced, and when they do make it back, should be faster still. Dusty is looking for 400+ while running an R1830. Steadfast needed an R2000 to do that, and even then, he barely made 400.
As far as Run What you Brung, I'd say Jeff LeVelle took that and ran with it this past year. I think there is a good chance that we will see him run faster this year.
Looking forward, I'd say in 5 years or so, we are going to have an amazing Unlimited Gold. There is a chance that Tsunami will be ready, Shockwave might be done, and other projects that are in the works although not public yet might appear. We might see other as yet unknown projects appear as well. The Sport guys are pretty well tapped out in terms of speed, so if they want to go faster, they are either going to have to spend HUGE sums of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a whole lot of reengineering or somehow blend the future with the past and run something with a Merlin, Griffon, R2800/3350/4360 simply to get the power they need to go 450+. Who knows, perhaps someone will buy American Sprit, and make that work because it will cost less than making a Legacy or Glasair run 450. (A strange though perhaps, but think about it.) The increase in speed of the Unlimiteds came on the backs of cleaner airframes and more powerful engines. A stock Merlin is roughly double the hp of the fastest Sport engine, but it won't move a Mustang 400+. The Sport engines are going to need insane amounts of boost, as well as more displacement to run 420, and there really isn't any viable way to get there short of engineering a whole new engine. ($$$$$$$$$$$) The airframes need to be aerodynamically perfect, and redesigned/reinforced to run that fast. Heck, the Legacy VNE is about 275 I think. They are WAY beyond that. At what point do we see wings or tails come off? I guess Sport class could embrace the Turboprop and go that route to find the power, but you still have to address the structure of the airframe. The Sport class guys aren't afraid to play with carbon fiber, so who's to say someone won't get some crazy idea like the Lear Solution, and actually build it out of carbon fiber? I think it comes down to the concept of speed costs $, how fast do you want to go? Do you invent a new engine that will produce the power, or do you buy a proven 80+ year old design, and build an aircraft around it? Either way you are looking at big $$$$$$$$. At least with the 80 year old engine, people have proven they can build a reliable one that will make the power required.
Will
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