I don't understand.....
What I see as the problem with this thread is, the question was asked what the potential of the airplane was. Several people have come on and made fact-based statements, including myself who presented a very well-researched and documented history of the aircraft, modifications, changes in the race course, and aerodynamic theory (the post of which was 'moved' for reasons I'm still trying to understand) in an attempt to make an honest answer to that question.
What the title of this posting should really be is "Wouldn't it have been great if....", because what I'm seeing and reading is a lot of people who only want to hear what they want to hear. If you want to believe the thing had tested at 525 mph, facts be damned, right? You'll believe what you want to believe because you liked the airplane and the woulda/shoulda/coulda. You're all convinced of 500+ mph laps and phantom practice courses in the desert. You're convinced that passing a sick Bear was making a monsterous move on the leaders...both of whom have documented lap speeds that decreased by about 10 mph per lap.
I would be a bit more believing if the airplane had been at PRS both in 2010 and 2011 and ran lap after lap after lap at speed...then we'd all see. But it didn't. Instead we got a qualifying lap in 2010 that was disallowed because of getting lost on the race course (Don't believe me? Just take a look at the picture Bucky Dawson posted in his "Buck Shots' thread). Did anyone watch the qualifying in 2011? I did. I saw three laps following Matt Jackson in trail to find the race course at speed before attempting theirs. And ask any pilot who has been there.....tooling around a stock Mustang at 380 is a completely different world than bending a highly modified racer with a tiny (and distorted) canopy at 480 when you're trying to find/fly the course.
Just like in my previous post which was removed, this is not being critical, it's not stepping on anyone's toes, nor is it blaming or pointing fingers. I am just pointing out facts. But again...if you believe in 525 just because 'someone told you so", I ask...would you believe Tom Camp if he claimed he'd had Air Biscuit up to 450? What would it do for Tom Camp to throw out numbers like that if they weren't true, right?
The bottom line is, (and this opinion is shared by several pilots and crew chief's I have spoken with about the subject) "The airplane's potential was exactly what we saw...nothing more, nothing less." If you guys don't want to take facts into consideration that are presented by people who actually kind of do have an idea of what they are talking about...then do you really want to ask the question in the first place?
What I see as the problem with this thread is, the question was asked what the potential of the airplane was. Several people have come on and made fact-based statements, including myself who presented a very well-researched and documented history of the aircraft, modifications, changes in the race course, and aerodynamic theory (the post of which was 'moved' for reasons I'm still trying to understand) in an attempt to make an honest answer to that question.
What the title of this posting should really be is "Wouldn't it have been great if....", because what I'm seeing and reading is a lot of people who only want to hear what they want to hear. If you want to believe the thing had tested at 525 mph, facts be damned, right? You'll believe what you want to believe because you liked the airplane and the woulda/shoulda/coulda. You're all convinced of 500+ mph laps and phantom practice courses in the desert. You're convinced that passing a sick Bear was making a monsterous move on the leaders...both of whom have documented lap speeds that decreased by about 10 mph per lap.
I would be a bit more believing if the airplane had been at PRS both in 2010 and 2011 and ran lap after lap after lap at speed...then we'd all see. But it didn't. Instead we got a qualifying lap in 2010 that was disallowed because of getting lost on the race course (Don't believe me? Just take a look at the picture Bucky Dawson posted in his "Buck Shots' thread). Did anyone watch the qualifying in 2011? I did. I saw three laps following Matt Jackson in trail to find the race course at speed before attempting theirs. And ask any pilot who has been there.....tooling around a stock Mustang at 380 is a completely different world than bending a highly modified racer with a tiny (and distorted) canopy at 480 when you're trying to find/fly the course.
Just like in my previous post which was removed, this is not being critical, it's not stepping on anyone's toes, nor is it blaming or pointing fingers. I am just pointing out facts. But again...if you believe in 525 just because 'someone told you so", I ask...would you believe Tom Camp if he claimed he'd had Air Biscuit up to 450? What would it do for Tom Camp to throw out numbers like that if they weren't true, right?
The bottom line is, (and this opinion is shared by several pilots and crew chief's I have spoken with about the subject) "The airplane's potential was exactly what we saw...nothing more, nothing less." If you guys don't want to take facts into consideration that are presented by people who actually kind of do have an idea of what they are talking about...then do you really want to ask the question in the first place?
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