Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

[Kilo Hotel]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

...it soon became apparent he had briefed the pilot on our accomplishment. The F-14 was at a standing start at the end of the runway, it went to full power, started to move forward then bang went straight up in the sky. he couldn't tell us but wow they showed us!
John Slack

Great story, John; thanks for sharing.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

As a side story during the Bearcat's attempts to set the 15 Km records at China Lake NAS during the air show there, the airplane was at the VX hangar hangar complex, along with a new Grumman Cat, the F-14. The F-14 was at a standing start at the end of the runway, it went to full power, started to move forward then bang went straight up in the sky. he couldn't tell us but wow they showed us!
John Slack

Wow that must have been a blast...I saw Tomcat first time in 1976 in Farnborough airshow and that along with F-15 were really an impressive pair.

Tomcat is 32 years old or more ?

JT

[Victor Archer]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Many years ago now I was at Edwards AFB. They had a demonstration of the Super Tomcat. The Super Tomcat was refitted with the much more powerful GE engines. Talk about performance, the demo stopped everyone dead in there tracks! I have never seen or herd anything els quite like that.

[hattend]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

The Super Tomcat was demoed at the Reno Air races two years in a row back in the 90's. VERY impressive and it had a unique sound (intake suck?) ...made the hair on the back of my neck stand up (like Rare Bear's full power flyby does now).

The Tomcat is being retired after this year, RARA needs to bring a demo back as a salute to a great plane. they're just down the road at NAS Fallon.

Don Hatten
Rare Bear fan Sponsor

[Victor Archer]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

The Demo I was talking about was of the F-14A+ as it was called at that time.
Here's a link to some interesting info. check out the specs on the GE engines.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/f14/

[hattend]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

The Demo I was talking about was of the F-14A+ as it was called at that time.
Here's a link to some interesting info. check out the specs on the GE engines.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/f14/

Yep, same plane that demoed (A+)...eventually became the F14D. The new engines made that plane SING!

I have the demo on video somewhere...I'm pretty sure it is on the same tape as the Pond Racer shots, so it was around the same time frame.

(pssst...RARA...Fallon's F14s are just down the road...hint hint)

Don Hatten
Rare Bear Fan Sponsor

[Victor Archer]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Hhhhmmmm a heritage flight with Rare Bear and a Super Tomcat with a high speed pass by both at the end

[jarrodeu]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Amen To That

[speeddemon]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

The Super Tomcat was demoed at the Reno Air races two years in a row back in the 90's. VERY impressive and it had a unique sound (intake suck?) ...made the hair on the back of my neck stand up (like Rare Bear's full power flyby does now).

Just remember, boys......'jets are for kids'.

[Victor Archer]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

The schedule has been posted for the races. No F-14 but there is a demo by an F-4 That should be interesting

[hattend]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Any truth to the rumor that Julie Clark is retiring after this season? I think I read that somewhere. (or maybe it was Patty Wagstaff)

If true, this is my last chance to get a picture with her...heheheheh

Maybe they can get an F14 flyby on the spur of the moment.

Don (a big kid cause I like jets)

[alaskaracer]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Sorry to disappointed you Mr. Unregistered but you have the wrong Wild Fire. The Wild Fire being discussed is a unlimited project not yet finished.

[Unregistered]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

I realize this AlaskaRacer. This group do not have Charlie Becks savy around the pylons, but they are very much racers and are very much in an AIRRACE

Their WILDFIRE is designed to climb very much slower than the
round engined WILDFIRE for the first 24000 feet, then they plan on it going very much higher and faster...IT SHOULD BE INTERESTING AND VERY MUCH A "HOOT"!!!

For data go to....www.davinciproject.com

[jarrodeu]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Yeah unregistered confused me. I didn't know what he was talking about. No one is perfect including me.

[Unregistered]

Re: Will Wildfire Be ready for Reno 2005?

Alaska racer,
I went back and checked on the threads regarding this post and found that I was indeed the only one listed as unregistered, so I must assume that you are addressing me. Perhaps you got confused when I started discussing the earlier efforts on the Statler father/son team in regards to some illfated modifications on the Lyle Shelton's Bearcat that was at the time being worked on by them as consultants. At the time they were called R.A.C.E., Which stood for Race Aircraft Configuration Engineering. After the Bearcat they pucrhased a T6 center section and drew Jim Modes and Charlie Beck into their program along with Ron Fleming. and began construction of the racer. I have read the confidential and quite extensive evaluation of the airplane done by Skip Holm years ago. I am sorry if you got confused, but the I was just pointing out what I beleived is a flaw in their thinking that I do have practical experience with, in my years of working on the Rare Bear.
I have seen the Wildfire at Mojave, I still don't think much of it. But I do know that it in theory it is an unlimited, but not in my opinion a competitive one. I feel I have earned the right to make this judgement based on my personal experiences as an active air racer for as many years as I have been doing this. BTW how is it shooting darts in the dark?
John Slack