On the Reno plane...

[catnhatnh]

Since I work at an airport I was able to find a magazine about the aircraft that crashed at Reno.

The aircraft was an extremely modified P-51 Mustang fighter built during WW2. It was purchased as war surplus in 1946 and first used as an air racer in the 1949 air races in Cleveland,Ohio.

The thing you have to get is that the original Mustang was hot as Hell. The car equivalent would be a Jack Roush production Mustang Cobra-a race car that could actually be driven on the street.What crashed at Reno was much more like an NHRA funny car. For those who don't know funny cars are just the most extreme expression of single limited use automobile ever built. They have only one job-to travel one quarter mile from a standing start in the fastest possible time. They look like "just" a performance car but are in fact totally unable to be driven anywhere but on the quarter mile.

To the "Galloping Ghost". The P-51 is a popular air racer, but underpowered as compared to other air racers such as the Grumman Bearcat that uses a much more powerful radial engine. The only hope for a Mustang to compete is to go radical on aerodynamics. Radials are air cooled and though powerful give up much of their aerodynamic performance through drag. The Ghost was recently modified again with the wings shortened another three feet for a total ten foot bobbing of flight surfaces. A well known feature of the liquid cooled Mustang, the belly scoop was removed and replaced with a total loss water/methanol spray bath system with exit ports set low behind the cockpit to expel steam. The Ghost carried both 150 gallons of fuel and 150 gallons of coolant. For the race both the "Ghost" and the coolant were trucked in from Florida. Aerilons were bobbed in the 50% range. The actual cockpit bubble was specially designed and a turtledeck added for flow. The propeller used was one of four being experimented with to help with tip vortex flow as was the spinner.

In short it was as extreme as you can get and something went wrong. The losses were horrendous. The aircraft was at the edge and failed.

[Atman]

1. Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

Wow. Just wow.

[catnhatnh]

2. The best part was a photo.

It showed the "Ghost" in formation with a stock P-51D. The contrast was telling. I really believe the pilot either black or greyed out on pitch-up and the rest was just physics...

[Sedona]

3. A 75 year old man

flying a 70 year old airplane 500 miles per hour.

What could go wrong?

[madrchsod]

4. it could go wrong at any age...

[catnhatnh]

5. The pilot was vetted..

The plane was in point of fact state of the art. The results were a tragedy. The failure was not easily predictable. Your take is both ageism and ignorance-while parts of the plane were old all of it was inspected and judged safe.

[customerserviceguy]

6. Well, put me in the category

who wonders why old men fly old airplanes in races. If goofy-ass people want to pay money to potentially risk their lives watching the spectacle, let them do it, but can we please make sure these flying games of "chicken" happen only in relatively unpopulated areas, where true innocents are much less likely to be killed or injured?

[sylveste]

8. isn't that what we had?

people paying money to watch the "spectacle" in a relatively unpopulated area. tragic accident for sure, but such is life. it would be a pretty boring existence if life carried no risks. put me in the "goofy-ass" group everytime.

[customerserviceguy]

10. I have no idea how close this airfield was to the populated areas of Reno

but many, if not most, airshows do fly over populated areas.

Hey, if you want to risk your life at one of these shows, or at an automobile race where parts of smashed cars fly into the crowd, be my guest. At least with the latter, those not looking for a cheap thrill at watching someone die don't have to be threatened by the debris.

[bullwinkle428]

7. Just on appearance alone, one could see how modified this plane

was beyond a production P-51, but I totally appreciate all of the additional information, especially about the way the cooling mechanism was modified.

[jdadd]

9. 1949 was the last year the races were in Cleveland

A P 51 crashed into a house in Berea thus ending the air races forever....I still attend the annual Cleveland airshow, but all we get now, are some pretty impressive fly bys....