The Galloping Ghost website is up, but it is not quite finished yet. I'm still waiting for more content. This is basically a preview of what it is going to look like.
Galloping Ghost Website
Galloping Ghost Website
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
Ryan, I have a really good sideview picture of Specter. My dad took the picture so I can do with it as I please. I was going to bring it this year and have Jimmy sign it. I would be happy to get a high quality scan of it to you guys if you are in need of Specter pics. Unfortunately I dont have the negative any more
. Let me know If I can help. I am very excited to see the plane again this year!!
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That would be great. We have thousands of pictures, but it is going to take a while to dig them out, if we can find them all. Make sure you come by the pits this year!Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
GG is now the 4th Mustang to have the scoop removed, the 3rd was Stiletto, the second was N13Y (pics found in one of the Stiletto threads), and the first was a P51B that didn't use a boil off system but moved the radiators out to the wing tips.
There was some speculation as to weather or not Stiletto could beat a modern Dago Red, however that will likely never be found out. That said we now have a close "clone" (not really but along the same lines.) that might be able to answer that question in the very near future. Rumor has it that Stilettos wing tips are being used on GG, and my untrained eye says that the wings and elevators are about the same size as well.
The boil off system fits well in the gunbays that used to be home to 6 50 cals. For more info on the boil off system, check out the Stiletto threads.
I knew GG was using a boil off system, but it didn't occur to me that the scoop would be deleted. That is super cool. I think I have a new favorite Mustang. (Mostly because they have boldly gone where few others have ventured.)
WillComment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
very cool sight, cant wait to see it finished and cant wait to see pics of the ghost on course, always liked stiletto, looks like i got a new favorite gold mustangrace fan, photographer with more cameras than a camera storeComment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
LARS and Stiletto both had the same clip....because they were both products of Dave Zeuschel. Whereas most racing Mustangs have the wings clipped at the production break (simply a matter of unbolting the outer panel), Z cut the wing on the then-Jeannie to the next aileron hinge in the spring/summer of 1983--shortly before Leeward purchased it. By making this cut, the wing spar was actually cut as well...essentially making it a permanent clip....at least for THAT wing.Originally posted by Dash
The following year, they did the same thing on Stiletto.
Both Jeannie/Specter/LARS and Stiletto had flat cap wingtips with aileron fences designed also by Z. When Alan Preston had the boil-off system installed in Stiletto in 1989, he had different "extended" wingtips installed. Someone on this thread said something about Stiletto's wingtips being installed on Galloping Ghost. Unless Ryan has something to say otherwise, that perception may have come from a comment that I made a couple months ago when Ryan posted the first 'sneak peek' photo...because there were a pair of white wingtips sitting on a storage rack in the background. I thought they looked like the ones off Stiletto. Ryan, however, said they were from an RV-4.Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
I'm probably mistaken, but didn't I read in "Wet Wings and Drop Tanks" that the First Boil-Off System was installed in Mike Carroll's ill-fated P-39? Wasn't Stilletto's mounted in the fuselage behind Matt Jackson?...D.Comment
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Carroll did have a boil-off installed in Cobra III. But Greenamyer's Conquest 1 had one installed three years before that, in 1965.Originally posted by David E. WellsComment
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That was me, I should have double checked the other post before posting that. I do remember the clarification being posted now. Either way, those are some seriously short wings, and the plane looks really good. I really hope it flies as fast as it looks sitting on the ground. Speaking of flying, has it flown yet? Crunch time is on and if it were mine, I'd feel better knowing its gone around the pattern once.Originally posted by speeddemon
WillComment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
Just curious... why are they going with the old Crocker canopy, as opposed to the sleeker Strega/Dago canopy? Either way, can't wait to see a mustang take the gold!!!!!!!!!!! Go MERLIN's!!!!!!!!!Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
Because it was available, and most likely cheaper than having a new one blown.Originally posted by vodkaandsodaComment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
The Strega/Dago/Red Baron canopy style is apparently very expensive to put together, with cranks, tracks, etc. that are quite complex to fabricate. Not always totally reliable either. Preston dropped out of the Gold his first year in Dago because the canopy opened, and Bruce Lockwood had problems with it in 1998, as I recall.
The big advantage is that can be opened in flight or taxiing, while most other racing canopies cannot (actually some can be opened a bit while taxxiing), without losing the glass and frame.
I suspect the Dago canopy style is quite a bit heavier, too.Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
Originally posted by wingman
Both Rick Brickert ('84), and Don Whittington ('95) have had to jettison the 'pop-up' style canopy in flight. Not my idea of fun....
And Dirk Leeward said that the canopy that was run on LARS had a tendency to lift at high speed...which goes a long way to explain the canopy exodus in 1984 during qualifying.Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
Thanks for the feedback on canopies... good points WINGMAN! Did Crocker have any problems with that style canopy back in the day WINGMAN? Very interesting how a race canopy factors into the success of a winning machine.
Wonder if they made any refinements to the Strega style canopy when they put Voodoo together as far as sealing, reliability, etc.Comment
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Re: Galloping Ghost Website
No problems at all with Crocker's canopy that I know of. The airplane, and so presumably the canopy, was designed by Jim Larsen, and he usually seemed pretty precise in what he did (and is still doing, with September Fury). Kerch seems to think Jim is an enormous asset to the 232 effort, by the way. Apparently Jim was not terribly enthusiastic about working on a Sea Fury til he saw some of Michael Luvara's telemetry data from 232 in turns and banks and got quite excited.
Sorry, I guess I got a bit off topic, there, so back to the Ghost...Comment
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