Post-War Racers?

[norab]

just for some interest

story here

Messerschmitt Bf 109G-6 Finnish Racer by Chris Sherland (Trumpeter 1/24)

 

[chris mcmillin]

Comments within...

Came across some info in the Cobra I and Cobra II.

Mira Slovak said that he ran a P-51H propeller on a P-39 and almost could not control it. When he tried to turn right, it wanted to do an outside snap roll to the left. After several atttempts, he wound up turning left and landing as quickly as possible. Seems the 4-bladed P-51H prop had a lot more blade area than the 3-blade stock prop, and the increase in surface area forward of the CL could not be handled by the P-39 tail. He is pretty sure that's what killed Mike Carol ... the extra area forward of the CL simply overpowered the tail surfaces of the P-39. If he had used a P-63, he'd have been OK since it was designed for a lot more power and HAD it in late models.

Cobra I and II used very similar propellers to the P-51H from the P-63E. They were very successful and these top test pilots set top speeds and won races. The airplane is controllable and it takes proper handling to do so.

Our shop has a 100-series Allison in the CAF P-63 at San Marcos and it is running and flying just fine. We COULD install an aux blower (we have two), but they aren't wanting one.

The old Cobra II was flown by Lefty Gardner before it crashed and he had this to say to Joe Yancey (they were good friends).

Lefty did not fly Cobra II before it crashed. No one did until the first test flight after the restoration when Mike Carroll took off and was killed bailing out. Tex Johnston (then vice president of Aero Space Lines based in SoCal), Darryl Greenamyer (several time world speed record, multi-time Reno Champion, and Lockheed and Air force test pilot), and Lyle Shelton (Naval Aviator, Naval test pilot, inter-service jet instructor and multi time air racer, at the time) all offered to due the initial test flights on Cobra II and they were declined by Mike on advice from his mentor E.D. Weiner.


When Lefty flew it at Reno, he said the Allison G-6 horsepower was awesome, and the driveshaft bowed over a foot and half under his seat! It was not designed for the power being used (the P-69 driveshaft WAS). He said it was far and away the fastest-accelerating aircaft he had ever flown until a mag let go and he decided to land on the remnaining mag rather than risk losing both. He said it flew "OK but not great due to limited control surface authority" but was very torquey and needed careful handling when at full rattle with the G-6 engine of about 2,850 HP+. When he landed, he was fast enough to have been a half lap ahead of the eventual winner that year.

This Lefty Gardner story is about flying John Sandberg's P-63 King Cobra "Tipsy Miss". It is anecdotal and the airplane was never very successful due to Sandberg endless fiddling.

That data from Joe Yancey after the nice article in a warbird magazine about the Cobra I and II this month. In fact, Joe will be missing from the shop tomorrow due to having to be in Palm Springs to work on THEIR Kingcobra that has issues with either simply a mag or something more serious. We hope it is just a mag. If not, it could be an easily fix or overhaul time ... we won't know until we get there. Mostly, their eninge seemed healthy last time was saw it, so Joe's thinking it could be a mag only at this time. More data after the visit ...


Thanks to Joe we have some very good Allison work going on in the warbird community.

 

[zoomar]

I suspect that performance had far less to do with what fighters were used as racers than simple availability. The vast majority of racers were surplus US fighters used by US flyers in US races. Planes like the P-51, F4U, F8F were available, known and reliable quantities, and probably relatively cheap. P-40s, P-63s, and P-39s also were raced in the immediate post-war years.

While it would have been cool to see Ki-84s, Bf-109s, and Fw-190's in the mix, this is just about impossible (with the possible exception of a Spanish Ha variant of the 109).

 

[Shortround6]

At times you could buy a plane for less than itwould cost to fill the tanks with fuel.

 

[GregP]

Hi Chris,

I have no way of knowing if your assertion is the case or Joe's memory is the case ... and I am in no position to argue either way. I followed Reno at the time, but was not at the races when Lefty purportedly flew either aircraft, so I can't say at all.

If you were there and monitoring Lefty, I bow to your knowledge, but Lefty flew a LOT of planes when he got the chance. He was happiest IN THE AIR, and there are several really neat stories about Lefty and the White Lightning.

Cheers! Go fast and turn left!

 

[nuuumannn]

All the members of our team have bolo hats and we have one gorilla mask and a fake wood propeller,. just lijke the original. When we do the "first flight" Steve Hinton will probably not wear the gorilla mask, but he probably will for the tow to the flight line during the next airshow after it flies!

That's awesome Greg! Has it flown yet? Any photos of the gorilla masks will be great to see!

 

[GregP]

The YP-59A has not flown yet. We have been trying to identify the money for the flight test program for a few years now without success, but have just has someone step up to the plate and say he'd match $25,000 if we put up $25,000 ... so we are MUCH closer than we were. The flight test program is expected to cost $50,000 within a 3-month period. When you pay for and apply for the FAA airworthiness certificate, you have 90 days to complete the flight test program or your application expires and you have to do it all over again, so the money has to be there.

Right now, we have finished the basic airframe, have made a new sliding canopy, are currently finishing a new windscreen, and are working on the ailerons and gap seals. The engines are installed, we fabricated firewalls (never had them before), and still need to make an instrument panel (easy when the insttruments are identified) and have a few miscellaneous tasks to complete, but the bird COULD be ready for FAA application within two months when the money is identified.

Hopefully within the next year, but I suppose we'll see, won't we?