For those who haven’t seen it, here’s the documentary on the B-29 salvage:
[youtube][/youtube]
Somewhere there’s also a documentary on his piston engine speed record, I’ll have to see if I can find it this weekend. Hopefully there’s one on his Starfighter too.
Darryl Greenamyer
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Connor
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:21 pm
[url=[/url]
Here you go . We use to have people that young people could look up to in Aviation . Men like Greenamyer and Hoover. I think there are still people around like that but aviation seems to promote people like Flight Chops and be happy with promoting mediocrity.
Here you go . We use to have people that young people could look up to in Aviation . Men like Greenamyer and Hoover. I think there are still people around like that but aviation seems to promote people like Flight Chops and be happy with promoting mediocrity.
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Colonel
- Posts: 3450
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2015 10:31 am
What a guy. He could fix them, and he could fly them.
Hell, he could put them together from a pile of scrap parts!
[quote]On October 24, 1977, Greenamyer, flying a modified F-104 Starfighter
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-104_Starfighter]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-104_Starfighter[/url]
"Red Baron" (N104RB)
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N104RB_Red_Baron]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N104RB_Red_Baron[/url]
set a FAI Class C-1 Group III 3 km speed record of 1,590.45 kilometres per hour (988.26 mph), which still stands.[5] An earlier attempt on October 2, 1976 yielded a higher time (1,630 km/h), but one timing camera didn't work on one run, meaning the record couldn't be certified.
He built the Starfighter by collecting and putting together myriad parts over a 13-year period. The cockpit side panels and some control column bearings of the Red Baron came from the very first production F-104A, which crashed in Palmdale, California 22 years earlier. The tail of the Red Baron, minus stabilizers, came from a junkyard in Ontario, California. The stabilizers and some nose wheel parts were from scrap piles in Tucson and Homestead, Florida. The idler arm for the elevator controls, the ejection seat rails and some electrical relays came from an F-104 that crashed and burned at Edwards Air Force Base on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Greenamyer got his throttle quadrant from a Tennessee flying buff he met at the Reno National Air Races. The trunnion mounts for the nose gear, some of the cooling-system valves and a few relays on the Red Baron came from a 25-ton pile of junk that Greenamyer bought at Eglin Air Force Base. In a swap with NASA, he obtained the nose of a Lockheed NF-104A
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A[/url]
with its reaction controls. The all-important J79-GE-10 engine was obtained from the US Navy[/quote]
His greatest achievement was perhaps to survive to the ripe
old age of 82. Not many people who did what he did, survived
that long. A few exceptions - Doolittle, Hoover, Yeager - but
most died young. They had streets named after them.
Hell, he could put them together from a pile of scrap parts!
[quote]On October 24, 1977, Greenamyer, flying a modified F-104 Starfighter
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-104_Starfighter]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-104_Starfighter[/url]
"Red Baron" (N104RB)
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N104RB_Red_Baron]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N104RB_Red_Baron[/url]
set a FAI Class C-1 Group III 3 km speed record of 1,590.45 kilometres per hour (988.26 mph), which still stands.[5] An earlier attempt on October 2, 1976 yielded a higher time (1,630 km/h), but one timing camera didn't work on one run, meaning the record couldn't be certified.
He built the Starfighter by collecting and putting together myriad parts over a 13-year period. The cockpit side panels and some control column bearings of the Red Baron came from the very first production F-104A, which crashed in Palmdale, California 22 years earlier. The tail of the Red Baron, minus stabilizers, came from a junkyard in Ontario, California. The stabilizers and some nose wheel parts were from scrap piles in Tucson and Homestead, Florida. The idler arm for the elevator controls, the ejection seat rails and some electrical relays came from an F-104 that crashed and burned at Edwards Air Force Base on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Greenamyer got his throttle quadrant from a Tennessee flying buff he met at the Reno National Air Races. The trunnion mounts for the nose gear, some of the cooling-system valves and a few relays on the Red Baron came from a 25-ton pile of junk that Greenamyer bought at Eglin Air Force Base. In a swap with NASA, he obtained the nose of a Lockheed NF-104A
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_NF-104A[/url]
with its reaction controls. The all-important J79-GE-10 engine was obtained from the US Navy[/quote]
His greatest achievement was perhaps to survive to the ripe
old age of 82. Not many people who did what he did, survived
that long. A few exceptions - Doolittle, Hoover, Yeager - but
most died young. They had streets named after them.
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Chuck Ellsworth
[quote][font=Verdana]His greatest achievement was perhaps to survive to the ripe[/font][font=Verdana]old age of 82.[/font][/quote][font=Verdana]
I am no Greenamyer but I will be eighty three next week and as to the flying part of my life I managed to fly commercially for fifty one years without ever damaging one or getting caught breaking the rules.
I owe some of that to knowing when to say no and never letting the airplane get ahead of me in my mind, and I was never satisfied with my skills level so I always tried to get better.
I plan on living to at least one hundred and die getting shot out of the saddle by a jealous husband.[/font]
I am no Greenamyer but I will be eighty three next week and as to the flying part of my life I managed to fly commercially for fifty one years without ever damaging one or getting caught breaking the rules.
I owe some of that to knowing when to say no and never letting the airplane get ahead of me in my mind, and I was never satisfied with my skills level so I always tried to get better.
I plan on living to at least one hundred and die getting shot out of the saddle by a jealous husband.[/font]
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Slick Goodlin
- Posts: 721
- Joined: Thu Jun 11, 2015 6:46 pm
[quote author=Colonel Sanders link=topic=9161.msg25182#msg25182 date=1539381122]
...most died young. They had streets named after them.
[/quote]
Well somebody read Yeager’s book. That part really stuck with me too and I still remember walking past the trophy case at my flight college thinking my goal in life was to never have an award named after me.
...most died young. They had streets named after them.
[/quote]
Well somebody read Yeager’s book. That part really stuck with me too and I still remember walking past the trophy case at my flight college thinking my goal in life was to never have an award named after me.
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Colonel
- Posts: 3450
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2015 10:31 am
Having an airport named after you was pretty much the same,
with the exception of OSH. I remember when Steve Wittman
died a few years back - he used to joke about it.
Hard to find anyone living, with an airport named after them.
My old airport was renamed after Russ Beach after he died,
and the street into it was named after a long-dead WWII pilot
Van Exan.
Pearson? Bishop?
with the exception of OSH. I remember when Steve Wittman
died a few years back - he used to joke about it.
Hard to find anyone living, with an airport named after them.
My old airport was renamed after Russ Beach after he died,
and the street into it was named after a long-dead WWII pilot
Van Exan.
Pearson? Bishop?
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JW Scud
- Posts: 252
- Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:44 am
[quote author=Slick Goodlin link=topic=9161.msg25127#msg25127 date=1539098341]
I can't believe nobody here has mentioned the passing of Darryl Greenamyer a week ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Greenamyer
He test flew SR-71s, claimed the FAI piston engine speed record which had stood since before the second world war, [i]built an airworthy F-104 mostly from parts out of scrap yards[/i] then flew it to a record speed that still stands, and made an abandoned B-29 airworthy in the middle of nowhere in Greenland only to have it burn to the ground before being ferried off that frozen lake.
Sounds like he was quite the guy.
[/quote]
Went to Fox Field the other day and in the restaurant plastered with photos of aircraft that have flown in the area, I picked up a local newspaper. It had a story on D.G. The Bearcat he broke the speed record with had a prop with 3 inch ground clearance in the three point position. I wouldn't let your miniature dachshund run under that prop.
I can't believe nobody here has mentioned the passing of Darryl Greenamyer a week ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darryl_Greenamyer
He test flew SR-71s, claimed the FAI piston engine speed record which had stood since before the second world war, [i]built an airworthy F-104 mostly from parts out of scrap yards[/i] then flew it to a record speed that still stands, and made an abandoned B-29 airworthy in the middle of nowhere in Greenland only to have it burn to the ground before being ferried off that frozen lake.
Sounds like he was quite the guy.
[/quote]
Went to Fox Field the other day and in the restaurant plastered with photos of aircraft that have flown in the area, I picked up a local newspaper. It had a story on D.G. The Bearcat he broke the speed record with had a prop with 3 inch ground clearance in the three point position. I wouldn't let your miniature dachshund run under that prop.
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anofly
- Posts: 161
- Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 6:26 pm
I am no DG. Luckily my dad used to take me to rockford (before oshkosh it was rockford) I think DG was there flying a bearcat. For sure Hoover was flying a P51 and a shrike. The interest stuck and I have flown for 38 years now. Not for a living but almost "enough". I always thought if i could fly 200 hours a year, for a few years I would be happy.Never made that happen.