Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/90184
Endeavor has been winning Formula One lately. at the finish, in his (and Phantom's) eighth Gold Biplane win. What do the other guys (and ladies) do? "We clean up the airframe as much as possible," said Casey Erick- son, who won her first Silver Heat Race and eventu- ally placed second in Silver. "We make everything as smooth as possible. We cover the gaps; we make everything fit as tight as we can." Horsepower in the Biplane Class is largely limited by the class's engine rules and fixed-pitch props, and the Pitts airframe isn't designed for slickness; greater gains are realized through aero sanitizing than from modifications made firewall-forward. In the International Formula One Class, though, where the old-design O-200 (no hollow cranks allowed!) is the powerplant, the airframe isn't limited to any one design. The minimum wing area of 66 square feet is not limited to any particular design; we've seen long wings, the Cassutt slab wings, and this year a new gull-wing design. Pushers dominated the class in the 1990s; two airplanes, one a traditional design, the other a slick composite bird, have dominated in this century. In this class, with fixed gear and props, slickness and flying style mean everything. Plus a few tricks. When You Just Need to Have a New Airplane September Fate, a gorgeous gull-wing, one-off Formula One, made its appearance at Reno 2012, with veteran Brian Reberry inside. Built to Reberry's own dimensions (and he lost 30 pounds to make those dimensions as Photography by Tim Kern Mariah and pilot Gary Hubler (shown in 2005). Hubler and Mariah recently dominated Formula One, winning consecutive races, 2002 to 2006, before Hubler was killed in a heat race midair collision in 2007 that also destroyed Mariah. EAA EXPERIMENTER 25 small as possible), it would be hard to fit someone much taller than 5 feet 8 inches into the cockpit. The diminu- tive fuselage cross section takes advantage of a small frontal area (pretty much defined by the O-200 engine) and modern aerodynamics, in turn possible because of modern composite engineering. Built in Mark and Frank Miller's shop at Warped De- signs, and with the help of the late Gary Hubler's family and crewman John Chambers, September Fate has a long, tapered wing. "There's a lot of glider in there," said Reberry. "It doesn't have the roll rate of a slab-wing Cassutt. But it's