How about some Formula V Air racing?!

[Jetmech2002]

These are flown with 1600cc VW engines!


Link

[vaughn bros.]

I've always thought the engine configuration and special parts was way cool. 👍

[Geeto67]

That video was made by Bobby Terry, his father Charlie is the first pilot you see in the video. Charlie was my father's close friend, and after the accident that is seen at 1:33 in the video, the wings from my father's sonerai were used to rebuild Charlie's plane "beetlebomb".

Charlie also knew Bill Mitchell and the legend was that some of the tech from the Thunderbug drag car made its way into Charlie's air racing engines.

I was a little kid growing up at that time and our family ritual was to get into the family 1963 Mooney M20C early Sunday, fly from Republic Airport on Long Island to whatever airport was hosting the races, help wth setup and corner work, and then fly home at the end of the day. Charlie would tow his sonerai behind his 1978 Ford thunderbird to the races and dad would help him in the pits sometimes as well. Charlie was a legendary figure in the flying community, he knew everyone. He was also a legendary mechanic. He started racing dirt track stock cars in the 1950's, he had a glass shop on the island, he had an A&P shop out at Islip, and he flew charters in his rainbow piper Comanche. One time on the way to a race he blew the trans in the t-bird, and managed to find another transmission and swap it in on the side of the highway using only the cars jack and his box of hand tools for the race.

That whole world was full of characters. Charlie passed a couple of years ago, but dad is still with us. A crash at Brookhaven in the late 90's where a pilot was killed pretty much killed off the sport in an instant. To be honest, I don't know if there is a market for that kind of racing today as compared to things like the red bull air races and Reno. But they were great times.