No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

[WASP-kid]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

30-40 gals of bond were original applied/reapplied by the master sculptor Tony Corbo, though a good portion of that was removed judging by the pile of dust swept up by the crew. This was in the 1995-1999 period. I believe Terry and crew only touched up the Bondo and repainted from that point forward.

The Bondo was used to cover a few of the sheet metal flaws in Dago's wings, specifically the high spot that runs span wise just aft of the main wing spar and the flat area of skin covering the gun bays. The fillets and fuselage and aft flight surfaces were also Bondoed

The airplane was put on jacks to load the wing and the airfoil was blue printed to the high point and the low points filled up to complete the profiling. The gear was aslo retracted and the gear doors matched to the wing airfoil with bondo. All art work and paint strips were removed from the gear doors/wing as the paint lines tripped the laminar flow.

I took what I had learned from Ray Cote and the Formula 1 people and we applied that to the airframe. "Look for every 1/4 MPH" Ray used to say.

I never viewed weight as an issue with Dago (to a point). It can actually be used as a benefit on the start, as it is Kinetic Energy, and on the long down hill start towards Pylon 4 gets you up to speed faster. Contrary to what people think, once released on the start and the throttle applied, there is no real sense of acceleration just more noise and vibration and a steady increase in speed.

Bruce

I would say this about sums it up. Bruce, I think it's fantastic that you chime in and give us amateurs the straight scoop. Thanks.

[bruce lockwood]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

SMEEAGAIN,

DGP's 491MPH lap came as a combination of things....some facts first. This testing was done by me with a Vintage V12's racing -9 Merlin with transport heads/banks/cams -7 blower gears, .420 prop gears and the old race 69 style prop plus 100LL and no ADI.

Original Dago 60/3000 RPM @ 5000 corrected temp 296 kts ind. By the way Miss A was 298 kts with same engine combo.

All airframe mods./scoop/profiled wing /doors, sealed coolant doors re-flexed flaps. composite fillets/dorsal, cuffed prop etc etc. Same engine as above, Dago increased speed to 317 kts ind at 5000' corrected. So you figure how much was bondo/cleanup related.

This combo went 462 mph in 1995 on the old course @ 3600RPM/112" Full throttle. So that would have been about 479mph as corrected to today's course.

The mouse motor in 1996 was run @120/3400 with 45gal fuel/spray bar water and 15 gal ADI when David Price went 491 MPH. The motor was not, I repeat not, deriched so it was down 200HP that whole race week. By the way that motor would run 3550RPM/145" at full throttle.

In my opinion that was properly one of the best laps ever flown especially in light of the fact that DGP was 60 when he did it. If you add the timing change for the new course(+17mph) you get a corrected 508mph first time out of the box. Add the 200 Hp by "deriching" plus another 300 HP for pushing the throttle up........ and you tell me how fast it is.

Bruce

[kiwiracefan]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

Bruce, this is awesome information of just what goes into a super stang to see the speed that is being run, I am going to echo others here and thank you for giving us a behind the scenes look at what has gone into making Dago the beast she is...

[MRE]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

Smee,where's the love my brother? I'd like to think it helped a little bit. As for T. Corbo doing the work on Dago, that would suprise me,and probably Tony as well. And the airplane was inspected when it was in Hollister by people that work on Mustangs almost every day of their lives. That is why I think they just destoyed alot of very nice work when it was striped down to bare metal.

[bruce lockwood]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

MRE, Part of the Bondo work went on at Tony's paint shop in Chino. Other work was done by the "big guy" personally at our Mojave facility. Tony was a real worker and virtually camped at the shop to get the work done. Chris. Mark, Mingo and I helped as needed. Bruce

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

Smee,where's the love my brother? I'd like to think it helped a little bit.

Mike was kiddiing (the little smile at the end gives it away).

He actually was saying that it was due, in part, to your bondo work.

[DOC.129]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

This thread is one of my favorite reads, some really interesting info from Bruce.

Anyone heard anything new on Dago in her new home?

Brian

[Airrace7]

Re: No, no, not Dago and/or September Fury

SMEEAGAIN,

DGP's 491MPH lap came as a combination of things....some facts first. This testing was done by me with a Vintage V12's racing -9 Merlin with transport heads/banks/cams -7 blower gears, .420 prop gears and the old race 69 style prop plus 100LL and no ADI.

Original Dago 60/3000 RPM @ 5000 corrected temp 296 kts ind. By the way Miss A was 298 kts with same engine combo.

All airframe mods./scoop/profiled wing /doors, sealed coolant doors re-flexed flaps. composite fillets/dorsal, cuffed prop etc etc. Same engine as above, Dago increased speed to 317 kts ind at 5000' corrected. So you figure how much was bondo/cleanup related.

This combo went 462 mph in 1995 on the old course @ 3600RPM/112" Full throttle. So that would have been about 479mph as corrected to today's course.

The mouse motor in 1996 was run @120/3400 with 45gal fuel/spray bar water and 15 gal ADI when David Price went 491 MPH. The motor was not, I repeat not, deriched so it was down 200HP that whole race week. By the way that motor would run 3550RPM/145" at full throttle.

In my opinion that was properly one of the best laps ever flown especially in light of the fact that DGP was 60 when he did it. If you add the timing change for the new course(+17mph) you get a corrected 508mph first time out of the box. Add the 200 Hp by "deriching" plus another 300 HP for pushing the throttle up........ and you tell me how fast it is.

Bruce

Once again it's is always nice to have your vast knowledge>

THANKS BRUCE