Some old Reno pics

[supercub]

I think that's where Rutan got the idea for the Pond Racer

[AE88]

What was the deal with Furias's cutaway rudder? I have always felt it looked awkward, and since we never saw any other Sea Fury follow the template, I'd have to guess it didn't really lead to any gains.

Will

Assuming you are referring to the lower profile, that is the stock profile of the Sea Fury- clearance for the tail hook. If you look at the pic of Dreadnought in the next post, you can see the original profile and where the extension has been grafted in.

Also, note the extra structure aft of the tail gear- hook attach structure. The Iraqi Furies did not have this structure as they were land based. Howard's Fury was an Iraqi airframe without it from the factory. Spirit of TX had the structure but we removed it when Stew decided he needed to go faster...

AE

[AE88]

Scott Smith in the checkerboard flightsuit on the left and Max Hoffman in the white flightsuit on the right. Don't recognize the other three.

The guy on the right has to be Connie Edwards- hat is the Edwards Ranch brand and it does look like a younger version of him.

AE

[AE88]

Long time lurker, first time posting. I just wanted to say thank you to all of the contributors to this thread (and the rest of the site as well). Some really amazing images that not only bring back memories but more so make up a historical account now. A combination of aviation, racing and camaraderie that the world will likely never see again unfortunately...

My first Reno was in 1988 and I was out there nearly every year until 2008. Got to go out for 2023 to help crew an unlimited one last time.

Reno was a special experience. Thanks again to all of you guys who documented it for us to look back on now-
Ashley Ezell

[wingman]

Ashley -- I have a question. I remember that your Father was involved in the the early 3350 Sea Furies. I think he built engine mounts (as well as whole airplanes).? The first 3350 Sea Fury was, of course, Blind Man's Bluff, followed by Cottonmouth and Howard's beautiful airplane. Did all these use the same engine mount design? Did your father design the mounts he made? Do I even remember this stuff right?

A second question -- Is this a normal Sea Fury exhaust system? There was some really beautiful metal work in that whole exhaust area of Howard's Sea Fury.

[wingman]

More Reno 1985 from the Strega trailer. I really admired Wiley Sanders and his approach to air racing. His airplanes were always immaculate and immaculately prepared, and they were ready.

[AE88]

Ashley -- I have a question. I remember that your Father was involved in the the early 3350 Sea Furies. I think he built engine mounts (as well as whole airplanes).? The first 3350 Sea Fury was, of course, Blind Man's Bluff, followed by Cottonmouth and Howard's beautiful airplane. Did all these use the same engine mount design? Did your father design the mounts he made? Do I even remember this stuff right?

A second question -- Is this a normal Sea Fury exhaust system? There was some really beautiful metal work in that whole exhaust area of Howard's Sea Fury.

Hi Neal,
Yes, the first batch of mounts were built by Larry Burton and those three and some others used them. After Howard's airframe had been stripped down and they were test fitting the engine to the airframe Dad discovered that the engine was sitting 1/2" or 3/4" off to the left. Straight, but off centerline of the airframe. Howard's project was missing most of the stock British accessory cowling so dad had planned to build his own and decided to live with the offset to save time completing the project. The next Fury in line at that time was for Henry Haigh and on that one he cut the legs off of the Burton mount, repositioned the engine and aligned it to the airframe. Then tack welded it into place when he got it where he wanted it. We then built a jig fixture off of that mount and used that fixture for all of the mounts that we built. Building the mounts along with the other firewall forward components was one of my first jobs when I started working in the shop.

Howard wanted a simple reliable racer and Dad had the artistic license to pretty much do what he wanted to do with it. There wasn't any design consultation or engineering on the cowling- he just built it the way he thought it would work the best. He wanted the exhaust to help pull the air out from the cowling kind of like an augmenter tube.

Regarding the exhaust setup, Larry had designed and contracted Tube Technologies to build it. (side note: Tube Tech is owned by Sam Davis who owns the Miss Trinidad Yak-11) He did two versions- a "stock" setup that would work with the original Fury mounting setup and a "tuned" set which is what Howard's and Blind Man's Bluff ran. I believe these are the only two airframes that ever used it. The "tuned" set had somewhat equal length pipes for each cylinder. It was an amazing feat of packaging that Larry came up with on that one. There is argument over the benefits of that for a supercharged engine but I leave that for the engine guys to argue about.

One thing is for certain- Howard's had a unique sound to it that none of the others did. Mike Brown's 232 sounded the best at power, but Howard's at take off had a note to it that none of the others did.

Had to dig deep into the mental filing cabinet but that brought back some memories. Thanks for the question!
Ashley

[wingman]

Thank you for the dig! I have always wanted more information about the appearance of the 3350 Sea Fury. I don't think there were ever enough Centauruses to get all those Iraqi airframes in the air, and more reliability at power along with 50 mph or more made a great combination. It sure was strange, though, to see all- Sea Fury Silver races and five or six Sea Fury Golds...

I loved Howard's airplane right from its beginning. Fast and beautiful will win me over every time.

[AE88]

Those two shots are really nice Neal- it really was a good looking airplane. I remember the races with nothing but Furies in them as well! For us in the US at that time, the 3350 sure was a nice marriage to the airframe. No major cowling modification was required to fit the engine and 400+ mph on the course with minimal work. I believe 1989 was its first year to Reno- and it ran in the 380's? Can you or anyone else confirm that?

Dad and the crew worked 7am to 10 pm 7 days a week for most of the summer finishing it just a week or two before Reno. I remember driving up to the shop on the morning of the first flight and Howard was already up and orbiting before any of us got there. Fortunately, the first flight was uneventful- just the usual tweaks and adjustments. He and dad put some time on it that week and addressed a few other issues that came up. They painted the green and gray late Thursday night- we were all holding shop lights and trying to fan away bugs while they were painting. The next morning they left at dawn and dried the paint on the way to Reno- hard to believe that was 35 years ago...

AE

[wingman]

Ain't that the truth!

Then Howard ran the airplane hard in Denver and in Texas as well as Reno. I loved this thing. Here's Howard at Texas in 1990.

[wingman]

A lot of Sea Furies? This was after the Gold in 1997.

[wingman]

A lot of Sea Furies? This shot is before the Gold Race in 1999.

Photo by Birgitta...

[RAD2LTR]

I think I saw a pic of Howard's Sea Fury with a very unusual prop one year. The blades had almost a scimitar shaped profile to them. What was the story behind that?

Southern Cross, before it became Sawbones. Now, once again it is Southern Cross. I was sad to see Sawbones leave, but happy that it was returned to a previous identity for the airframe.

Will

[wingman]

You know, for me it has always been Southern Cross, later temporarily called "Sawbones". I loved the name Southern Cross. It firsr appeared at that same Texas race in 1990. I really liked George Baker, the builder. He sure was proud of his "Sky Fury". For some reason he picked 71 as his aircraft number. -- There was all sorts of consternation when everybody realized there was already a very active Race number 71.

[AE88]

I think I saw a pic of Howard's Sea Fury with a very unusual prop one year. The blades had almost a scimitar shaped profile to them. What was the story behind that?

Southern Cross, before it became Sawbones. Now, once again it is Southern Cross. I was sad to see Sawbones leave, but happy that it was returned to a previous identity for the airframe.

Will

That was on for one of the Phoenix races in the mid 90's. A prop shop in CA had come up with it and wanted us to try it out- I think they were talking to Howard. They thought it would give us 10-15 mph over the Aeroproducts. It was a Ham Standard 43E60 hub but I can't recall what the blades were from- maybe DC-7? The shop had swept and profiled the tips like those on Voodoo and Strega. The main problem I noted from the start was the root of the blade was very narrow- the cross section where the blade passed through the spinner shell was an oval profile, no airfoil profile at all. The Aeroproducts had much more blade area at the root.

We took the time to adapt the spinner over to the Ham Std configuration and gave it a try. Dad said cruise performance may have been a little better but on the course it slowed us down. I think dad finished behind Howard in the Bearcat at that race. Needless to say, after we got home, it was pulled off and shipped it back to CA and the Aeroproducts went back on...