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The formula V races had some interesting ideas. In the end the focused on getting air races in every air show they could manage. They used big inflatable pylons and had starting procedures that got the races set up and then broken down in a hurry to not interrupt the flow of the air show. So for a little while they did manage to have a lot of races in a year.
Sadly they had some REALLY bad ideas about racing procedures like "I know how the other guys fly so its OK for me to pass from underneath and on the inside" (I saw that in an interview with one of the pilots that was later killed in a mid air). Thinking like that caused several mid airs with fatalities pretty much killing the class. I also believe there were some airframe failures that also produced at least one fatality.
I keep expecting to see the class pop back up because it does seem like a pretty affordable way to race.
Formula Vee was concieved as an entry level class by famed air race pilot Steve Wittman. Aircraft were restricted to a "box rule," with 75 square feet of win...
Thanks for coming up with that video -- it brought back memories of covering a couple of their races back in the mid 70s and meeting many of those people. Some good racing and interesting folks...
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