Some old Reno pics

[wingman]

I believe the wing was moved towards the rear not forward. Compare the location of the leading edge to the firewall.

I have found this endlessly confusing, but Mike is obviously correct. The airplane started out very tail heavy, with a lot of lead in the nose. A magnesium tail did not entirely cure things, but it helped.

Reno 1989







Reno 1990

[wingman]

This was a nice angle on the airplane.

Taken during the Saturday Heat Race.

[SpinB]

Tsunami may well be the ultimate "What could've been" had circumstances turned out different! She had incredible potential...

[wingman]

I can't remember, was moving the wing a smart move? Did it make positive gains? Or was it just a move that produced a net gain of ? I think the plan for Tsunami is to put the wing back where it was on the plans as they have no notes for where it got moved to.

Will

I don't think anybody really knows. Steve has been quoted as saying the airplane flew better but may not have been as fast. There are lots of Sandberg haters that are sure Jack screwed things up, but they seem divided over whether the wing move was awful or the flaps screwed everything up. The airplane flew faster after the wing move and Skip absolutely loved the airplane the way he flew it. That should tell you something, I think.

The reality is that there was much wrong with the airplane as first flown, but it was the fastest airplane on the field in 1987 -- clearly faster than Strega in a qualifying scenario at least. It just got faster over the next 5 years. In that time they changed carb intake, cooling system, wings and tails, went through a bunch of scoop and doghouse designs, spent a fortune on magnesium, and just got faster.

This is a summary of some of the bigger changes, from Sharon Sandberg's newsletter...





So massive changes happening constantly. I think it is pretty much impossible to say much about the wing move and its effects.

[wingman]

Tsunami people...

On the left is master mechanic and metal worker Ray Poe. On the right is Lockheed engineer Bruce Boland. Bruce designed and built and Ray built. This picture was taken shortly after Steve landed on Tsunami's first arrival in 1986.

High times after all those years of working away at this thing.

[CJAM427]

It's quite interesting to think about the "what-ifs" for Tsunami... It would be neat to have seen if it evolved like Strega and Dago Red did through the 1990s. Also interesting to think about if Skip Holm had continued flying it -who would have been picked to fly Dago Red after Bruce Lockwood.

[RAD2LTR]

Interesting questions. It could be fun to kick some ideas around as to how the Unlimiteds would have changed had Tsunami continued to to evolve. In '91, they proved they were contenders, and every bit as fast as Rare Bear and Strega. Imagine if Tsunami ended up with an Allison rod Merlin. That was the key to getting the Merlins to live at high power, and more power reliably would have made Tsunami a force to be reckoned with. Then the question of pilots, if Skip had stayed in Tsunami, its an interesting discussion as to who would have ended up in the seat.

I think Tsunami would have pushed everyone else running at the front to get very creative. I guess we could see where some of this could have gone looking to the future since we still have the Shockwave project and Tsunami will fly again someday. I get the idea that Shockwave was Greenamyer's answer to Tsunami, as was the Cornell racer.

This could be fun rabbit hole to fall down.

Will

[wingman]

I think Tsunami was the most promising of these projects, but that all would have run into the propeller issue at pretty much the same speeds. You can only turn the prop so fast. All the top racers seemed to stuggle mightily to reach 500 mph -- so much so close...

There were several attempts to make a faster unlimited prop...

[CJAM427]

I never noticed how huge the cuffs were on the Tiger Claw prop!

The Fury prop looks like a cut down Hamilton standard, does anyone know more details on that?

[RAD2LTR]

Tsunami's trick prop came apart in the test cell if I remember correctly. Normally they ran T28 blades. The Tiger Claw was a very cool looking prop, and that is the first time I've seen the cuffs on it. As for Howard's Sea Fury prop, it didn't pan out and was actually slower than the normal one. We talked about it in either this or another thread on here not too long ago. I don't remember the specifics however.

As for the Merlin powered aircraft going 500+, Dago had the only answer. The custom made reduction gears, in other words, a very slow nose case (currently on Miss A's race engine). Now, what would happen if someone ran the custom nose case gears with a scimitar blade?

On the note of what the future could bring, we do have Andy Findley's unlimited project. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag here, but we've already seen some of the development on prop design there. I also have to wonder what the Shockwave project will produce? Both projects have background with very high performance modern props with the Sport class racers. Clearly they are exploring what needs to change in order to make the props effective when they are up against an RPM barrier. The exciting thing here is, there is communication between the Tsunami, Shockwave, and Andy. They are comparing notes, and sharing some info. This can only point to some exciting racers if/when we get to see the Unlimiteds race again when these racers are completed (I do believe all 3 will fly.)

Will

[wingman]

That was on for one of the Phoenix races in the mid 90's. A prop shop in CA had come up with it and wanted us to try it out- I think they were talking to Howard. They thought it would give us 10-15 mph over the Aeroproducts. It was a Ham Standard 43E60 hub but I can't recall what the blades were from- maybe DC-7? The shop had swept and profiled the tips like those on Voodoo and Strega. The main problem I noted from the start was the root of the blade was very narrow- the cross section where the blade passed through the spinner shell was an oval profile, no airfoil profile at all. The Aeroproducts had much more blade area at the root.

We took the time to adapt the spinner over to the Ham Std configuration and gave it a try. Dad said cruise performance may have been a little better but on the course it slowed us down. I think dad finished behind Howard in the Bearcat at that race. Needless to say, after we got home, it was pulled off and shipped it back to CA and the Aeroproducts went back on...

Post 555 in this thread...

[N22252]

On the note of what the future could bring, we do have Andy Findley's unlimited project. I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag here, but we've already seen some of the development on prop design there.

Will

Inquiring minds want to know about this!

[RAD2LTR]

Inquiring minds want to know about this!

I'll give you a little hint... Its carbon fiber, and powered by a very unique griffon (Its not supercharged) The airframe has flown in the past with a turbine (and was kinda ugly looking.)

Thats all I can say.

Will

[MRE]

The '' Tiger claw was a lot of work. The spinner took a lot of time to make. One of its problems was it was too heavy.

[AE88]

Post 555 in this thread...

Thanks for referencing the post Neil- haven't seen that in a long time! In the pic, note the size of the blade cutouts in the spinner and how little the blade filled it up...

Do you have any other Fury pics from Phoenix? Dad also raced Chuck Leshe's Fury with the purple mop-n-glo paint job that year.

Also found this youtube video of one of the races where the Fury just couldn't get around the Bearcat. Youtuber has a few other PHX 500 videos posted as well.

AE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vXi2S08qV8