Air scoops

[wingman]

Re: Air scoops

The various pilots of Stiletto seemed pretty happy with her though, Michael...

There certainly seem to be various ways to go with racing scoops. Here we see the two alpha Mustang racers of the last quite a few years. Strega's scoop is quite petite, and closely tucked up to the wing. Dago's looks almost bulbous in comparison, and is quite wide as well as deep compared to Strega's. Both approaches seem to work quite well!

The Strega scoop dates from the Kerchenfaut era (and this is at least the third completely different version). Kerch had nothing to do with the Dago configuration. It was done by Bruce Lockwood and crew during the major rework in the early 1990s, when Dago went from a 440 mph airplane to a 490 mph airplane in just a few years (and a literally unlimited budget). In an interview a few years ago Bruce talked about spending much time at (I think) Cal Tech digging through aerodynamic and wind tunnel data done after the war. I don't remember all the details, but he was quite proud of that scoop and doghouse configuration.

Neal

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Air scoops

I'll qualify my post with the statement that all my information is second hand... pretty reliable second hand's but non-the-less....

From what I learned during the MAII "sex change scoop" era, a LOT of what goes on in the actual speed gains with the various iterations of Mustang scoops, happens inside the scoop, rather than outside it...

Ramp angles, distances, etc....

The "exacts" of all this is highly guarded, from what I understand...

I only wish there was enough room on a stock Mustang wing for another MAII "female" scoop design..

Though they had initial cooling problems, which lead more than a few observers to the conclusion that the scoop did not provide enough air, later in the '99 week, the problem turned out to be a clogged radiator core, leading to a coolant flow restriction, rather than an air flow problem.

Unfortunately, we will probably only be able to speculate what might have been... unless another MAII surfaces...

W.

[Leo]

Re: Air scoops

That MAII scoop is just downright sexy. Er...Uh...never mind.

My Stilletto history committed to memory in it's later career is sketchy at best. Did they ultimately eliminate the wing inlets and go to a boil-off system?

Off Topic but does anyone know the settings to allow all pictures to show in Explorer? Neil's shots are always red x's and I get this on other sites so it has to be me.

[KAHNZILLA]

Re: Air scoops

I remember reading somewhere that the reason the scoop was dropped down from the wing or separated from the wing is because it caused tail flutter.
the narrower intake on DAGO and such may keep flutter to the tail from happening.
Miss Ashley if I remember also moved the intake of the scoop further forward (smaller landing gear than standard P-51) because it was suppose to increase speed. I have always wondered if this caused the separated we all witnessed. Thanks, KC

[Big_Jim]

Re: Air scoops

Miss Ashley if I remember also moved the intake of the scoop further forward (smaller landing gear than standard P-51) because it was suppose to increase speed. I have always wondered if this caused the separated we all witnessed.

The reason Miss Ashley II\'s scoop was moved forward was because it needed the extra room for the correct shape, size, dimensions for the NACA scoop formula to get the right volume of air to the radiator. They were able to do it because the landing gear and leading edge of the Lear wing were significantly farther forward than on a stock Mustang wing--which is why none of the other\'s can or ever will run with it.

Someone in this thread mentioned MAII\'s cooling issues. I spoke with Skip Holm and Gary Levitz on Friday of race week that year about that very issue. The radiator in the plane was out of Wiley Sanders\' old Georgia Mae, and had never been properly flushed after many years of racing and then \'sitting\'. The thing was apparently full of goo, which was making temps go sky high at power. It had been flushed the night before, and during testing, Mr. Levitz said that if anything, now the new scoop worked TOO well, since the temps were almost too low from too good a flow. I\'d say that\'s the better of the two problems to have.

[t-dub]

Re: Air scoops

That MAII scoop is just downright sexy. Er...Uh...never mind.

My Stilletto history committed to memory in it's later career is sketchy at best. Did they ultimately eliminate the wing inlets and go to a boil-off system?

Off Topic but does anyone know the settings to allow all pictures to show in Explorer? Neil's shots are always red x's and I get this on other sites so it has to be me.

The 1992 pic of Matt and Stiletto in the above post is with the boil-off system installed.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Air scoops

Off Topic but does anyone know the settings to allow all pictures to show in Explorer? Neil's shots are always red x's and I get this on other sites so it has to be me.

Leo.. what browser? It's probably due to the images coming from a different domain than the page and might have something to do with either security settings, or pop up blocker in your preffs...

W.

[taglialavore]

Re: Air scoops

The 1992 pic of Matt and Stiletto in the above post is with the boil-off system installed.

yes, I suppose so, but never saw a boil-off system. I´ve seen an sketch of it in a report written by Pete Law, but that´s all.
Any one have a picture or sketch of the boil-off system, to see how was it installed inside Stilletto?.