Reno Air Race Jet Crash Analysis

[Scudrunner]

[Colonel]

New racer. Got out of position and pulled enormous G.

Odd how so many pilots are unaware that the radius of your turn is a function of velocity SQUARED at any given G.

His radius at 500 mph is 25x his 100 mph radius.

It would be interesting to know how many minutes this guy had spent over 400 mph. Hard to get good at something without any practice. Then he’s going to do it at the surface, in a crowd.

[Slick Goodlin]

I didn’t know Juan Browne raced biplanes. That’s pretty cool.

[Scudrunner]

Don't get me wrong but I've always thought Air Races like this are stupid waste of time.

I like the records like fastest time between NY and LA in a single piston and records like that, turning left really fast is best left to Nascar where the crashes are cool and people usually walk away.

[Colonel]

Any race where you end up exactly where you started, seems to lack utility.

A jet race from NY to LA would be fantastic. Maybe just two rules: subsonic and below 500 feet.

[Squaretail]

Any race where you end up exactly where you started, seems to lack utility.

A jet race from NY to LA would be fantastic. Maybe just two rules: subsonic and below 500 feet.

Nah, it would be more awesome if there was a horsepower limit, props, and more cannonball run style.

[Scudrunner]

Here me out I had this crazy idea of making a Long EZ a flying tank of gas.

Depart Old Crow YT to YYT St John Newfoundland, try for a record furthest points in Canada in a piston single or some such record if it exists.

Edit l: actually and correct me if I’m wrong the longest flight would be ZMT Masset BC to YYT

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[Slick Goodlin]

Any race where you end up exactly where you started, seems to lack utility.

More fun to watch though.

I’d like to see a short-ish handicap race like the King’s Cup they used to run in England. A big triangular course, three laps. Anything can enter and in the lead up to the race a team of judges goes over your airplane to decide how fast they think it is and assign a start time. If they do their jobs right then every entrant crosses the finish line at once.

The very last King’s Cup was won by a Miles Magister trainer, just feet ahead of a Hawker Hurricane that had launched after the Miles had already completed two of three laps.