Seafury

[Bspeed]

Finally, I got the shots I was waiting for! The prints of it look great.

The Seafury is an awesome airplane. This one belongs to Cavanaugh. I have a hanger shot too, somewhere on the HD.

This one is a trainer configuration, two seater.

Lens: Sigma 50-150 f2.8 not a lot of zoom for these shots, but overall good rendention.

 

[KiwiBird]

Nice pics!

It doesn't actually fly - it just does big bounds, right?

 

[Bspeed]

The Aussie's used these in the Korean war :)

 

[76GMC1500]

I know a guy who flys one of these. He clipped the wings and added nitrous oxide. The engine is already supercharged and I believe he said it had a power turbine. It makes something like 4600 hp and does over 500 mph. He used to run it in the Reno air races. It was the Critical Mass. The owner said he might let one of the engines go for the right price, $250,000.

You should get a picture of the engine, that is what makes this plane truely unique. The engine runs on the 4-stroke cycle but has no valves. The cylinder liner rotates and times ports to give it a 4-stroke cycle. It is a sleeve-valve engine.

 

[TwinSpar]

I've always been a fan of the Bearcat. Perhaps I was lured into being a fan of the plane via the owner of a company that I worked for that was a sponsor of the Rare Bear. I got to see it fly one time in Reno and it was incredible.

I've heard that many of the old pilots that flew the Bearcat said that the Rare Bear shouldn't fly based on the mods done to it (shortened wing span, etc). Me thinks that wings had less to do with it flying than the motor did. :ohmy:

 

[76GMC1500]

Critical Mass carried only 300 gallons of fuel on board. This was good for something like 5 minutes of flight. On more than one occasion he has had to glide and the clipped wings make that a little difficult.

 

[Bspeed]

Seafurys and Bearcats are awesome race planes. Of course there was Bob Hannah with the Voodoo Mustang :) good ol Bob he's a bad arse dude!

I think there is an older Seafury race plane near me in Sherman, Tx. Need to check that out one day.

I have the full res pics on CD, and will take the pics to Cavanaugh Museum tommorow.
That should be good for 0.045 brownie points :)

 

[Rich Rohrich]

Nice pics Bspeed. Did you use a polarizing filter on the sky shots?

 

[Bspeed]

thanks, no, iits just that awesome Nikon for ya :) do have a heliopan uv on it though.