Another Biplane Racer At Reno 1970: Bill Warwick's Hot Canary
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 09:28AM 
(click to enlarge) Bill Warwick's Hot Canary biplane racer on the ramp at Reno 1970
Not long ago I posted some pix that my dad took of the all metal biplane racer Sorceress at the Reno Air Races in 1970 , and today it's a pic of another one-of-a-kind biplane racer, the Hot Canary. I wish I had more pix of this little cutie... we probably did have at one time but we lost several boxes of old aviation photos 30 years ago. Ugh. Oh well, at least I still have this one pic of the biplane racer that I picked as my fave. Sorceress was very cool, and even as a 9 year old kid I knew it represented something quite fantastic, but the Hot Canary did a better job of mixing an edgy racer with cartoon whimsy. As a kid, I liked that. I was also drawn to its simplicity. There weren't a lot of curves, but from a design point of view, it still looked very cool. I liked the Hot Canary so much I even built an RC model of it back in the late 80's. That model was a great flyer at both ends of the speed range.
Anyway, the early 70's were an exciting time for specialty biplane racers. There was Sorceress, Hot Canary, Sundancer, and this sweet Ford powered concept. I sure wish we'd seen this idea really take hold as there's no end to the cool ideas for fast little airplanes with two wings. I guess it's easy to wonder why would we ever build any biplane racers in the first place when there's every reason to believe that they'd never be as fast as a monoplane racer. But if you're gonna ask that question, you might as well wonder why we build racers at all. Racing is really all about passion and competition. And airplanes with two wings have being stirring up passion in the human being for about a hundred years now!
So, the Hot Canary. It was designed and built by Bill Warwick in the late 60's. According to an article from 1998 in EAA's Sport Aviation: Bill Warwick was an aviation professional who was employed by Northrop Aircraft for 36 years and ultimately retired as manager of the company's engineering test lab. During the course of that career, he was involved in many of Northrop's highly secret black projects, including the Stealth Bomber, but on his own time he was the quintessential EAA member and homebuilder. It's always interesting to see aerospace guys who still have their heart in the simple, small homebuilt aircraft! Also of interest, the very first Thorp T-18 was built by Bill in the early 60's. The Hot Canary was Bill's attempt to get in on this idea of creating one-of-a-kind biplane racers.
Bill qualified in both 1970 and 1971 at Reno with speeds over 170 mph (on a 125 hp Lycoming O-290) which meant it was a contender right from the start. The airplane never won at Reno tho as it's always a challenge to have everything come together at the right time to wind up crossing the line first. I don't have info on whether the Hot Canary raced after 1971, but at some point in time, Bill donated the airplane to the EAA museum. In fact, it used to hang from the ceiling right inside the main entrance of the fabulous Oshkosh facility. The original Red Devils Pitts Specials were right over your head in the entrance and the Hot Canary was tucked off to the side. Now that the Eagles Aerobatic Team aircraft hang in the entrance, the little yellow racer has been moved. It's no longer on display in the museum, but now it's over on the EAA grounds above the offices in the in the FAA Building. Hopefully there will be a day when it gets back into the museum.
Lastly, I'm beginning to collect photos (there aren't all that many) and info on all four of these unique and extreme bipes with hopes of putting together a very detailed post sometime in the future. I think they represent a fascinating and almost completely forgotten part of American aviation... and I'm gonna do what I can to keep their memory alive.
Reader Comments (7)
Bill Warwick was my uncle. He was a great man. His wonderfully dry sense of humor coupled with his amazing stories made holidays and family get togethers always a joy. Uncle Bill also designed and built the Bantam (sp?). The Thorpe T18 had a tiger painted on the side of it ... I called it the Flying Tiger growing up. He took me up in that plane over the skies of Ventura County. Will never forget that day. We lost him too early in life ... he died test piloting a plane. I miss him still today, close to 20 years later.
Good article. Wish I would have seen this years ago when it was written. Bill Warwick was my grandfather. If you are interested, my mother might have more pictures of the Hot Canary and/or other planes of his. Thank you for sharing. Chet Warwick, if you are interested, we would love to talk with you.
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