Bardahl Special

[Pylon1_Mark]

Here in Germany we are not so familiar with insider details, please Mark, what is the "the hump"?

That would be a story for a different thread and would be off topic to this one. Been thinking about doing it for a while, but the story isn't ready (yet). Hold that thought

[MRE]

The hump or bump is a bulge installed at the radiator exit where the hell hole cover is. It works along with the exit door to '' squeeze the air exiting the radiator to create more thrust. Just one of many trick pieces that was on Dago Red.

[Pylon1_Mark]

The hump or bump is a bulge installed at the radiator exit where the hell hole cover is. It works along with the exit door to '' squeeze the air exiting the radiator to create more thrust. Just one of many trick pieces that was on Dago Red.

Yes, that's the long-and-short of it... but I'm sure there's more to the story. Who designed it? Was it designed to increase thrust as most people say? If that's the case did the Meredith effect play a major role in its design? Or was it designed primarily to produce a laminar flow of air aft of the radiator to reduce the drag associated with the P-51 doghouse configuration (with thrust increase simply a side benefit). Was there any testing done? If it was done (which seems logical considering the computing power back in the mis 90's) what did the results show? What happened to it after Dago was disassembled and sold? Is it still with the airframe or is it somewhere else? Was it ever installed in another aircraft? If so, which one(s)? If not, why? Was it ever duplicated? Why or why not? Where is it at today? Does the current owner have any plans for it in the future?

So, at this point I know the history of the mod after I left the Dago team after 2003... what I don't know is the why & who, which you have to get from the source... critical to a story like this. Without it, the story is just pit chatter. I do know who to contact, but I don't even know if they will talk to me about it or if they do - if it's something that can be shared. Air race stories can be a double-edged sword... sometime the more you find out, the more you wish you never started looking to begin with. Hopefully this won't be one of those cases. The hump has always held a special place in air racing lore - one of those mods that nobody really knew about back in the day except a few. In today's world that's not the case, but no one I've talked to really knows the true story behind it all, and I'd like to find out . I'm already 1/2 way there, so we'll just have to see where this takes us.