Sorceress: Radical Sport Biplane Racer At Reno 1970

(click pic to enlarge)  The very radical Sorceress biplane racer at Reno in 1970

(3 pix) 

I've been quiet about the Reno Air Races since shortly after the tragic crash of Jimmy Leeward in The Galloping Ghost that took his life and the lives of 10 people in the stands, along with injuring many more. Time has the ability to settle much of the shock of an event like this, but obviously there are many people for which this tragedy will forever define the rest of their life. For all of us though, regardless of how much time passes, it just seems like the kind of occurrence that we will never be able to make any sense out of. This is the reality of much of life... things happen that we would never dream of, and pain and confusion are the result. But if there's one thing that seems to be clear, even in the face of tragedy, it's that life goes on.

 It's with this idea in mind that I'm sharing these pictures from Reno in 1970 of one of the most unique aircraft ever to show up to the races. There's a long and very rich history since the races began in 1964, and it feels like looking back is one of the best ways to look to the future.

 Sorceress arrived at Reno to shake up the Sport Biplane Class, but according to the amazing race history book Racing Planes & Air Races 1968-1971 (by Kinert), Sorceress did fly, but the lack of time on the aircraft put it in the position of a fill-in and was only allowed to finish in last place. I was fortunate to be at these races in 1970 as a 9 year old, and my dad took these pictures as we were able to see Sorceress up close. I knew it was a big deal even as a kid to see this game changing racer, but I don't have any memory of how the races turned out. I'm so thankful to have this book (and the previous edition that covers the years 1909-1967) to be able to re-experience some of the history that I witnessed from 1967 to 1970. These two books are highly recommended.

(click pic to enlarge)  Sorceress: All metal, negative stagger, and inverted gull  lower wing

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Boeing 787 Dream Tour - And... Design Your Own Livery!

My airline would be called REVO, and here's the 787 livery that I designed!

Update: My REVO 787 livery is now in the official gallery, click here to
view it & drag the airplane to see from all angles! (or click either pic) 

 Boeing is soon sending the 787 out on what they're calling the Dream Tour, a six month global tour to take the Dreamliner to their customers and partners for a close look at the most advanced airliner on the planet. Check out newairplane.com/787/dreamtour for more info.

 Of greater interest to me (and maybe you too) is a swanky design feature they've added to newairplane.com that lets any of us create our very own livery for a 787. And this isn't some cheapo stick model, as you can see from my REVO concept here, the final result can be quite fabulous! It's even in 3 dimensions and can be rotated on any axis as you tap into the design controls to let your creativity flow. It took me about an hour to crank out REVO, but if you aren't quick to pick up the interface, you might find it a bit of a challenge to make something that looks really good. It's the kind of thing a 12 year old would probably breeze thru, but many adults might struggle a bit with it.

 Once your design is complete, you can post it to the design gallery for everyone to see. I've submitted REVO, but there's an approval process that takes at 24 hours, so my design won't be there right away. I hope you consider going to designyourown.newairplane.com to check out the design gallery of other people's work, and then, if you're an airline livery geek like me, take a little time and give it a go : )

 Lastly, REVO is an airline concept I've had in mind for many years... it stands for 'revolution', as in a revolution in air travel. Of course it's easy to dream up a revolution, and a whole lot harder to put into practice, but I'm just sure as I can be that the best airline still doesn't exist yet. If only I had a few close friends with a couple hundred million bucks each stuffed into their mattresses, we might be able to give this a REVO a shot!

The left side on my REVO 787 livery concept built up at designyourown.newairplane.com

The Electric, Amphibious Lazair... Pilot Report By Elliot Seguin

Elliot Seguin flying Dale Kramer's amazing electric and amphibious Lazair ultralight

(11 pix)

Elliot Seguin works at Scaled Composites, has experience racing at Reno with his Wasabi Air Racing Cassutt, and he loves to fly... this extensive pilot report is posted here on Airpigz with his permisssion. The electric Lazair is a recent update to the design by Dale Kramer, the original designer of this very popular late 70's ultralight aircraft.

For more details on the electric Lazair project, check out this 
extensive forum thread by Dale Kramer (KiloOne) at RCgroups.com

PILOT REPORT:

 We had an amazing opportunity recently to fly arguably the most operational electric airplane out there. Dale Kramer is a master builder of all kinds of interesting projects. His shop was extensive and impressive.  He designed the Lazair in the 70’s during the boom in the ultra-light industry.  Over the next several years the factory he set up sold 1200 of the airplane to enthusiasts from all over the world. Dale became interested in other types of flying (heavy lift airships, competition soaring) and separated himself from the Lazair.

 But recently the electric aircraft boom has inspired Dale to dust off his Lazair. The resulting set of experiments resulted in a new chapter for the design and perhaps for general aviation. Dale’s final iteration included hanging two Joby electric motors from the Lazair’s nacelles replacing the two JPX two strokes he had flown behind for years.  When he put this new configuration on floats he had the first electric seaplane, a terribly practical electric airplane, and one heck of a beach toy.

 I called Dale after seeing the airplane at Oshkosh. I was hoping to learn more about the switch to electric and where he thought electrics could go. When he responded with an invitation to visit his home in western NY and “find out for myself” it was just a matter of buying the tickets. In the three days we spent with Dale and Carmen on Keuka Lake the Electric Lazair was flown almost twelve hours total by six different pilots in many different atmospheric and water conditions. We walked away with a much better understanding of this new way to propel aircraft and with big smiles on our faces.

 Could electric power plants change full size aviation the way they did r/c? The shift to electric from glow power in RC aircraft has drastically improved accessibility, ease of maintenance, and in general relieved the boundaries of entry to that sport. Before electrics even the most experienced RC pilot might spend ten minutes getting his glow engine to start on his model, and he would most certainly smell like glow fuel when he was done.  With modern electric models an operator no longer has to spend all that time and energy dealing with the powerplant. I wondered if that would be the case with electric man carrying airplanes.

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Video: GE Aviation And The Fascinating World Of Building Jet Engines

 I saw the short version of this video as a TV commercial yesterday and I really liked it. Even tho I have big issues with the mega corporate side of GE, GE Aviation seems to have its head screwed on pretty straight. The video also reminded me of an article from several years back that I had read that told of the unique manufacturing environment for jet engine building at GE... a quick search found the article: Engines of Democracy from Fast Company Magazine. If you've got an interest in how things get done, and especially in a very non-traditional kind of way, I highly recommend you read that article. It's from way back in 1999, not too long after the huge GE90 that powers the Boeing 777 was introduced, so the details of manufacturing may have changed, but it's a fascinating (and kinda long) read.

 The world of incredibly close tolerances, and essentially no-room-for-error is probably pretty different from what most of us live on a daily basis, but I must admit that I find it extremely alluring. It's the kind of environment and people that made America great 70 to 80 years ago... and I think we need a lot more of it. ASAP.

Video screenshot showing a GE jet engine coming together

Video: The Greatest Aerobatic Team Ever - Happy Thanksgiving!

 Warning: this post contains a display of my unashamed belief in God, the Creator of the
universe and the inventor the awesome concept of flight - read on at your own risk : )

  Here I go mixing flying and God again (I did it here, here and here), and there's no better day to do it than on Thanksgiving. This video by two young women is beyond fantastic... it shows an incredible display of starling birds doing that incredible formation flying that you've probably seen or heard of before. But this video is by far the best I've ever seen of the phenomenon. The girls were on the River Shannon in Ireland when the massive quantity of birds began swirling and flying in formation right above them. It's stunning, it's beautiful, and if you're anything like me, it really makes you think.

 What it makes me think is this: how can this mass of birds possibly move as tho they are almost of one mind? How can the information of where the group is going be telegraphed across the mass so quickly? How can hundreds of thousands of birds fly so fast, in such a tight formation and not all wind up falling out of the sky?... especially when there is so much hard core aerobatics taking place.

 To me there's only one answer. God.

 The flight of these starlings in the video is pure miracle to me. But the basic concept of flight, both the flight of birds and the flight that we humans are able to enjoy, is a wonderful blessing from the mind of God. And I figure that Thanksgiving is the perfect day to reminded that we gather together with family and food to thank Him for all the blessings He has given us.

To the Lord of all creation, Thank You!

 Screenshot from the video showing the unbelievable flight of the starlings

Unbelievable! A Kit For The Rutan Boomerang Now Available!

(click pic to enlarge) The Burt Rutan designed and built Boomerang at Oshkosh 2011

 After all the excitement we had seeing Burt Rutan's old mid 90's era Boomerang (the wild and super asymmetrical twin) at Oshkosh this summer, I was recently stunned to find a kit for the airplane is now available... and it's only $3.95! Ok, true, the Boomerang homebuilt you would construct from this kit is scaled down some (a lot), it's built from a revolutionary new material (it's paper), and it's performance in the air is not up to Burt's original (it doesn't fly at all) - but hey, it's only $3.95!

 Seriously tho, this paper Boomerang model, available from EcardModels.com, is really very impressive. At 1:29 scale, it looks like that'll work out to a little over a 15" wingspan - certainly big enough to look pretty fantastic sitting on a shelf. A couple weeks ago I bought and downloaded the six page pdf 'kit', and I figure it'll make a great weekend project once the snow starts to fly. I've never built a paper model before, but after checking out the EcardModels website, I'm really impressed with what can be done in paper. The Boomerang is a difficulty level of 3/5 - I may be in over my head for a first project! There's a wide range of aircraft to check out, in a range of difficulty, and pictures of most all of them completed for you to see. 

 I'll put a detailed post together later after my own Boomerang is built. But I'm hoping maybe some of y'all out there will build something cool in paper as well. If you do send some pix and I'll post 'em : )

The very awesome paper model of the Rutan Boomerang from EcardModels.com

Video: Amazing RC 3D Ballet Viewed From Quad Copter - Awesome!

 I was sent a tip by AirPigz fan 'Eric' about this incredible video that's on the Hobby-Lobby youtube account (the RC Superstore, not the craft store) - wow this is great stuff! There are two elements that make this video so awesome. First; it's a really slick view riding on a Quad Copter. You see the grass flutter when we first takeoff, and then as we mosey about the RC model flightline you get this interesting view moving around and over the activities. It has a little of a Terminator feel to it... small VTOL robot scanning around the environs.

 Then there's element #2, the really cool part. It's shot during a Profile Brotherhood event (ProBro) in Nashville recently. The ProBro is a gathering of flyers with predominantly profile fuselage models with very high power to weight ratios. These guys love to fly 3D. If you don't know, RC 3D flying is all about doing cool stuff while hanging on the prop. The extra special part of this video is that there is a boatload of these models all flying at once, and we're moving all around them with this awesome camera view. It's like a freaky cool ballet of aircraft hanging on their props, and we're right in the middle of it! It's a little hard to explain, but I found it to be stunning. Watch it now!

Video screenshot of the view from the RC Quad Copter

In 1954, ANYTHING Is Possible! (Convair XFY-1 Pogo VTOL Video)

 This short video from November 1954 shows the Convair XFY-1 Pogo making the transition from a tailsitting VTOL concept to a forward flying big-prop-beast! (ok, big props) Bottom line: this is a must see video!

 Stop and think about this... it's 1954 (57 years ago) and an airplane successfully takes off from a tailsitting position, then speeds around in fast forward flight, then comes back and points the nose to the heavens and lands back vertically on its tail again. This is amazing! I'm not sure, but the success seen here with the Pogo might have had more to do with the skills of test pilot James Skeets Coleman than anything else.

 I guess I've been captivated by the tailsitting concepts since I was a kid. The Convair Pogo and the Ryan X-13 Vertijet (video here, CoolPix here) are my two faves from the way-back days. And even tho we never really found a way to solve all the challenging tailsitter issues that arose back in the we-can-do-anything 1950's, I have to wonder if a military tailsitter deserves another look in our modern day of computer assisted flying. The simplicity of the thrust always moving 'nose to tail' regardless of flight mode seems to make a lot of sense. Maybe I'll whip up a little concept drawing on that idea before long, you know, cuz I've got nothing else to do...

The amazing 1950's era Convair XFY-1 Pogo VTOL aircraft in forward flight

Video: 747-200 Cockpit View Of Max Weight Takeoff - Awesome!

 Wow. This video might mean more to me than it will to you, however, I'm as sure as I can be that you'll love it too! It's an excellent cockpit view (shot from the jumpseat) of an older 747-200 taking off on runway 08 at the Ostend Belgium airport at or very near max takeoff weight. I highly recommend you watch this video, and that you do so in the 720p HD setting and in fullscreen... you'll feel like you're right there with the crew!

 I specifically enjoyed the video because it reminded me very much of my dad, Robert Clupper. He passed away on January 10, 2009 at age 79. For 35 years he flew for United Airlines, starting out with the DC-3 in 1952. He used to say "DC-3's to 747's, who could ask for more?" In 1971 he transitioned from being a 727 Captain to flying Co-Pilot on the 747, shortly after the airplane came online at United in 1970. He spent the rest of his career, another 16 years, in one of those two seats in the front of the 747... over 10,000 hours accumulated on this type alone!

Video screenshot of the start of takeoff roll in this very heavy 747-200

 Similar to the 747-200 in this video, the -100's that my dad mostly flew where a 3-man cockpit with a Flight Engineer sitting sideways monitoring the aircraft systems. And while the -100's had a max takeoff weight of 710,000 pounds, the -200 in the video is more like 820,000 - 830,000 pounds, or around the 371.9 (x 1000) KG seen on the gross weight indicator early in the video. Takeoffs at or near gross weight were a common experience for my dad. For several years he flew the non-stop trip from Chicago ORD to Honolulu HNL - lotsa people and cargo, and even more fuel.

 The takeoffs out of ORD on hot and windless days were pretty scary. Those early 747's were a little on the underpowered side, and at max weight and high temps, the roll down the runway was really looooong. He told me many times of how they'd rotate way down the runway, and since they were so heavy, the airplane would often roll for quite a way with the main gear still on the ground. Some of those takeoffs saw the mains leave the ground with less than 1,000 feet of runway left! He said the end of the runway would disappear from their view (under the glareshield) as they rotated, but they wouldn't be off the ground yet - Yikes! Can you even imagine what that looked and felt like from the cockpit? And the fun wasn't over yet... the rate of climb would start out at just 300 feet per minute on the worst of days! Those were some marginal operations to say the least! Thankfully, advances in aerodynamic design and far more powerful engines have left those days far behind us.

Video screenshot of the Co-Pilot hand-flying the 747 on climb out above the clouds

 So anyway, this video gives you a little feel for what it looks like with the end of the runway in sight on a heavy takeoff, and for what the early steam gauge cockpit looked like as well. For a guy like me who's really far more interested in taildraggers that don't even have starters or radios, seeing all these instruments, knobs, and switches can kinda boggle the mind! But I must say I felt like I was right there in the jumpseat... and it wasn't too hard to imagine my dad hand-flying his most favorite aircraft of all time : )

Video from youtuber Balleka (who also appears to love sailplanes like my dad did)

CoolPix: X-15 Pilots... Does This Spacesuit Make My Butt Look Big?

(click pic for hi-res)   NASA X-15 pilots showing some early space humor in 1966

 I was 5 years old in 1966 when this NASA picture was taken. I definitely remember the North American X-15 being part of my culture growing up from about age 7 on - what an amazing time in aviation and aerospace history! In all, three X-15's were built, with the first of the programs 199 flights taking place in 1959. The program officially ended in December 1970. This high altitude rocket plane, which was launched into flight from a B-52 mothership, was an essential part of the research and development that put Americans into space. Can you even imagine that at its maximum, the X-15 flew up to 354,200 feet (67.08 miles) and at a speed of 4,520 mph (Mach 6.7) - Wow!

 This CoolPix is a whole lot more about the pilots tho than the airplane. Given how much these guys were pushing the envelope of flight, it's no surprise that they also knew how to ham it up a bit. It's also interesting that this group of guys represents exactly half of the total number of X-15 pilots. One of them not in this picture was Neil Armstrong. You might have seen the CoolPix of Neil with the X-15 that I posted in February 2010. These are some amazing historical images to be sure!

 Of the three X-15's built, one was tragically lost along with pilot Michael J. Adams in 1967, one is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, and the one pictured here with the playful pilots is on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio. That's my cue to mention that a second annual AirPigz meetup at the Air Force Museum is now in the works... it'll most likely take place in late January 2012, and I'd like to encourage some of you to consider meeting up with 10 or 15 of us avgeeks to experience the amazing aviation history on display there.

 I'll be posting more info as we move into December, but if you're interested in being on an email list for more details, send me a quick note at mcc@airpigz.com to let me know. Museum admission is free, and of course there's no charge for the AirPigz meetup on Saturday and/or Sunday. I'll also be planning to take in the behind-the-scenes tour on Friday again (the only day they offer the tour), and I highly recommend you join that experience too, it's amazing. And seeing this X-15 is another example of a piece of aviation history on display there that's worth the trip : )