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  • #16
    Re: The Lowell Archives

    Originally posted by FuryFan View Post
    RE: the Sea Fury group.....The fifth photo. I'm assuming Centarus power because of the pitch of the blades, and what looks like nine exhaust stubs poking out of the cowling........but, wasup with the prop?

    Kevin
    That was Jim Mott's "Super Chief"...the old Signal Sea Fury/Miss Merced. As I recall, it still had a Bristol Centaurus in it, but where the Sea Fury ran a model 82 Centaurus, Mott put the 4-bladed prop and engine from a Bristol Brigand on it, which was a model 57.

    I don't know enough about the Centaurus exhaust system to comment on the number of stacks, but that could be what you're seeing.

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    • #17
      Re: The Lowell Archives

      Originally posted by Big_Jim View Post
      That was Jim Mott's "Super Chief"...the old Signal Sea Fury/Miss Merced. As I recall, it still had a Bristol Centaurus in it, but where the Sea Fury ran a model 82 Centaurus, Mott put the 4-bladed prop and engine from a Bristol Brigand on it, which was a model 57.

      I don't know enough about the Centaurus exhaust system to comment on the number of stacks, but that could be what you're seeing.
      I'm pretty sure I saw that engine at the San Diego Aerospace museum.

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      • #18
        Re: The Lowell Archives

        Originally posted by Propellerhead View Post
        I'm pretty sure I saw that engine at the San Diego Aerospace museum.
        Yep, Super Chiefs Centaurus is at the museum in San Diego!

        That thing used to taxi out from between the corrigated metal hangars at CNO and made such a racket. I dont recall 232 sounding quite as wicked back then, perhaps Jim had a slightly different exhaust arrangement?
        "dont believe ANYTHING you hear and about HALF of what you see"...................J. Mott 1994

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        • #19
          Re: The Lowell Archives

          Time for some historic Formula 1!

          I'll let you guys fill in some of the blanks...

          I particularly like the cooling on inlet on the DeLuca #71, however I can't imagine that it helped much? Maybe it did, because I believe these are '76, in which 'Lil' Quickie' took Gold at 228.75mph. (Putting an end to Cote's mighty reign of 8 years, he didn't race in '76.) Ray would be back again to re-claim in '77, and DeLuca's bird would wear a new name, and carry a new director.









          - Joseph

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          • #20
            Re: The Lowell Archives

            Originally posted by Idaho_cowpony View Post
            Not really sure where to start this one;
            Slowly going through literally tons of my dads aviation and air racing collection. Am going to post the more interesting items here for all to enjoy.


            'Candace' - '72 (with Gorilla!)


            - Joseph
            Do i see Roto-Finish special in the background? wow rare shot of RB before she was RB
            race fan, photographer with more cameras than a camera store

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            • #21
              Re: The Lowell Archives

              Yes, Roto Finish Special, the Gold champion in 1972, Gunther Balz. Breaking the long standing Conquest streak!



              - Joseph

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              • #22
                Re: The Lowell Archives

                Just a little cleanup -- shows details a bit better...
                Attached Files

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                • #23
                  Re: The Lowell Archives

                  Thanks

                  Which filters work best for that?


                  It was a 1200 dpi scan, of a little photo which is about 3/4" by 1".

                  Then I had to shrink it ti about 12% for upload.

                  Any ideas?

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                  • #24
                    Re: The Lowell Archives

                    This thread kicksass.

                    Thanks for sharing these.
                    You'll get your chance, smart guy!

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: The Lowell Archives

                      That bit of playing with that shot was done in Photoshop, so what I did will not transfer well to other editing programs. Scanning such a tiny print is almost impossible to do well. I'm enjoying this thread no matter how they look...

                      Neal

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                      • #26
                        Re: The Lowell Archives

                        Thanks Neil! Always really respect your work!

                        Dug up a few odd-ball mustang shots. Curious colors, and interesting times...









                        And the bonus '72 shot...


                        - Joseph
                        Last edited by Idaho_cowpony; 07-29-2013, 11:56 PM.

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                        • #27
                          Re: The Lowell Archives

                          Thank you Joseph for sharing your Dad's archives. I am feeling a huge loss.. I knew your dad.. I watched you growing up "underfoot" over a decade ago... (I know, I was a "don't touch my computer"... AA..hole... in those early days in the AAR hangar... ) eet was my job maan....

                          Joseph, I knew Lowell had a passion for this sport but I never realized the depth of his knowledge and historic contribuition recording the images of what once was..

                          Thank you again for sharing!
                          Wayne Sagar
                          "Pusher of Electrons"

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                          • #28
                            Re: The Lowell Archives

                            Wayne,

                            Gee..thanks for the kind words. It's been tough, because whenever I have a question, or want to just talk air racing, as we would weekly, I can't do that anymore! So I miss him. But sure do enjoy the peace in knowing that he's in the skies of heaven today!

                            Only touching the surface of the archives.. Literally going to be a WIP for some time to come. We have boxes of 35mm that hasn't even been developed, some probably going back to the 70's, I don't know? Many slides as well. Will get them out of storage next month.

                            He collected magazines as well, particularly anything to do with Reno, and especially anything '71-73 era, since the '72 races were his first year. I found an 'Air Progress' article on 'Mr. Mennen', dated October, however written before the races that year! Slovak states that the aircraft would be fast enough aerodynamically, combined with the quoted "2,100hp" Allison, to go for 500... Of course, the crack-down on rules in '72 kept us from ever learning what she would do... Lots of crack-down that year, that's also highlighted in another article, which discusses Greenameyer, and his replacement pilot, of course, Laidley would not only be beaten to the checkers by Balz, but also suffer infraction for flying too low, reducing him and Conquest 1 to last place of the Gold.

                            Going to dig up the racing Cobras box one of these days... Particularly interesting to me, and Dad, because his father (my Grandfather) was friends with C. Tucker, and helped him clip the wings on one of his '63's. Wish I had those tips! Could mount them on a small aircraft and pass 'em off as wings!

                            - Joseph

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                            • #29
                              Re: The Lowell Archives

                              Originally posted by Idaho_cowpony View Post
                              I found an 'Air Progress' article on 'Mr. Mennen', dated October, however written before the races that year! Slovak states that the aircraft would be fast enough aerodynamically, combined with the quoted "2,100hp" Allison, to go for 500... Of course, the crack-down on rules in '72 kept us from ever learning what she would do...
                              Doug Fisher did an interesting article on Cobra III last year for Challenge Publications. Part of that was an extensive interview with Slovak on his testing of Mr. Mennen (40 years after the fact). And the truth was that there was no way Mr. Mennen would have approached that speed. First off, the wing of the P-39 is not a high-speed wing. But as far as race mods, initially they had a big 4 bladed paddle prop. Slovak could hardly keep the airplane going in a straight line with that, and couldn't even come close to anything resembling race power. So then they switched to a three bladed hub with the paddle blades. Same result. After two plus years of testing, they finally had to give up and go to a stock narrow blade configuration....and it certainly wouldn't approach 500 like that.

                              What it really did was shine a light on what guys like Tex Johnson, Jay Demming, and Chuck Brown were able to do with Cobra II in the Cleveland days, and shows just how out of their league Mike Carroll was trying to control the rebuilt Cobra III with the big four blade prop AND clipped wings. Slovak is a pretty good stick and rudder pilot, so if he was (his own words) afraid to fly Mr. Mennen in race configuration, it was just bordering on dangerous. He made the right decision to not attempt to race it anymore.

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                              • #30
                                Re: The Lowell Archives

                                Correct you are Jim..

                                That was an excellent article. Have read it several times. Why Mike was convinced that he needed to fly that first hop is beyond me, but tragic. At least Slovak's decision not to cut the wings was a good one... probably saved him.

                                Why didn't these guys learn from the King Cobra?? Length...Height.... If they wanted to run more power and more prop, why not begin with the obvious? Isn't this the first thing Greenameyer learned with #33??

                                Regardless of how fast it could have gone, let's remember that in 72', about four and a quarter is all you needed for a lap speed...

                                Mira's all-around bad luck, bad press, and political troubles with Reno '72 is what killed 'Mr. Mennen', not it's capability as a racer.. I believe had '72 simply been a learning experience, and he had been allowed to attempt to qualify (as most every Unlimited pilot hoped he would), that we would have seen him back to Reno again, and potentially even front-runner, even if by default. Remember some of the poky first place gold's in the mid seventies due to the big dogs breaking? Maybe Mennen would have a Gold...

                                It's one of the great 'could have been' stories of the races. I would put Dilley in that category as well.

                                - Joseph

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