Re: MPH record???
The time to climb was a blast, I can remember, I think Jim Mott in the T-6, and Dwight Brooks in the Baron were flying with some kind of sealed altimeter as spotters. The Bearcat also carried some kind of sealed device for the NAA.
Cliff Putman was on the outside of the airplane with Lyle in the seat. The tail cone had been removed and what ever unit used to release a load from a large helicopter when the load goes out of control was attached to the tailhook structure. The other end was attached to a giant chunk of concrete that was at the end of the Thermal airport runway. We were all within spitting distance of the airplane. I remember being at the tip of the wing standing next to Lyle's green pick up truck. Cliff had control of the release, Lyle ran the engine up to a level that was beyond what I think has ever been done tied down before or after. Cliff released the switch on Lyle's signal and it must have been somewhere around a hundred yards later the Bear lept into the sky. 91.9 seconds later it was all done. Lyle has waited for someone to break that record for the excuse of re-breaking it, but nobody has yet. Steve Hinton has talked about breaking the record with the museums Griffon engined Spitfire before I think they could easily.
As another side note to that; When we were offered the China Lake record range to try with radar to set the 15 km record on a second for that one. The airplane was kept in the VX hangar in the non-public part of the base. It sat there beside another brand new Grumman Cat that was out there from Long Island. There was the first Tomcat I had ever seen, they weren't really at airshows yet. While the crew worked on the Bearcat the senior Grumman test engineer came over and talked with some of the guys. When he found out that we held the time to climb record he was pleased, I think from the conversation they "could" have held it too at that time (but that might have been classified). The Bearcat was his first project at Grumman and to see one fly that day had made him very happy. As a kid I remember asking him how fast the F-14 could climb. he said sorry I can't tell you. about two hours when the "NEW" Cat was ready to leave for Bethpage he came over and said "I can't tell you how fast it climbs but I can't help what you see". The engineer had arranged for the pilot to give us a private demonstration out there on the end of the China Lake facility. Burner on, wings out, rolling, nose up, wings back, gone. memories are nice.
There is an understatement, remember the time Jackie's perfume company had the crowd "cropdusted" with perfume from a B-36 I think it was at Dayton, Ohio.
I don't think it was destroyed, from the description of the condition it was disassembled for repair work on the wing and just never was put back together. as for the location............Ralph Payne and I were on a couple of treasure hunts at the time of his passing. My last talk with him in the hospital in Phoenix was a nice visit and I truly did not think it would be my last visit with him. Ralph had some interesting ideas regarding that and another airplane. We respected the fact that those airplanes we were looking for belonged in the Smithsonian, or The EAA, and not in our opinion a private collection and were looking for the planes to preserve what they were. So I have some thoughts but nothing that would make ready to go play "Aviation Indianna Jones"
Chris...[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the memory jog Chris.
John....
Your serve
Originally posted by Chris McMillin
Cliff Putman was on the outside of the airplane with Lyle in the seat. The tail cone had been removed and what ever unit used to release a load from a large helicopter when the load goes out of control was attached to the tailhook structure. The other end was attached to a giant chunk of concrete that was at the end of the Thermal airport runway. We were all within spitting distance of the airplane. I remember being at the tip of the wing standing next to Lyle's green pick up truck. Cliff had control of the release, Lyle ran the engine up to a level that was beyond what I think has ever been done tied down before or after. Cliff released the switch on Lyle's signal and it must have been somewhere around a hundred yards later the Bear lept into the sky. 91.9 seconds later it was all done. Lyle has waited for someone to break that record for the excuse of re-breaking it, but nobody has yet. Steve Hinton has talked about breaking the record with the museums Griffon engined Spitfire before I think they could easily.
As another side note to that; When we were offered the China Lake record range to try with radar to set the 15 km record on a second for that one. The airplane was kept in the VX hangar in the non-public part of the base. It sat there beside another brand new Grumman Cat that was out there from Long Island. There was the first Tomcat I had ever seen, they weren't really at airshows yet. While the crew worked on the Bearcat the senior Grumman test engineer came over and talked with some of the guys. When he found out that we held the time to climb record he was pleased, I think from the conversation they "could" have held it too at that time (but that might have been classified). The Bearcat was his first project at Grumman and to see one fly that day had made him very happy. As a kid I remember asking him how fast the F-14 could climb. he said sorry I can't tell you. about two hours when the "NEW" Cat was ready to leave for Bethpage he came over and said "I can't tell you how fast it climbs but I can't help what you see". The engineer had arranged for the pilot to give us a private demonstration out there on the end of the China Lake facility. Burner on, wings out, rolling, nose up, wings back, gone. memories are nice.
Originally posted by Chris McMillin
Originally posted by Chris McMillin
Chris...[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the memory jog Chris.
John....
Your serve
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