I have been into aircraft basically since before I could walk...My father worked on aircraft at NAS/NARF Alameda....Around 1975-6 I started to buy AC magazines like Air Classics, and saw articles on the Unlimited racing, mainly in Reno, NV....wanted to go but had a lot on my plate...

My favorite airplane was the RB-51...A WW2 Mustang that had raced for years- modified a bit, then Ed Browning bought it and hired two Lockheed engineers to design modifications to it; Wings clipped, smaller cockpit and the really crazy mod; A Griffin 57 bomber engine with counter-rotating props.

A young man named Steve Hinton was flying it and winning a lot of the races- and in 1979 set the speed record for a recip aircraft at 499.018 MPH- bad weather limited the runs and performance. With better weather they believed the plane could hit 530.

At Reno that year, Steve was flying in an unlimited race when something went wrong- basically the shaft that drove the supercharger and the oil pump failed....the oil pressure controlled the prop pitch- this resulted in the props going to FLAT pitch (Like having a barn door on the front of the aircraft!)

Steve was trying to make an emergency runway, but RB-51 was being slowed and fell from the sky- his last words were 'Tell Karen I love her!" (His fiancée in the pits) The plane dropped below the end of the runway- Huge ball of fire and smoke....

His crew jumped in an old wagon (Parts chaser) and raced down the runway, clearing the 6-foot fence below the edge of the runway by driving off the end at high speed (Car was wrecked). They found he had survived!

The plane had hit a big boulder and the wings (Fuel tanks) had separated...The engine had pulled the fuselage clear of the fire- by the time it came to rest, the fuselage had disintegrated...The only aircraft part identifiable was the vert fin. Steve had several broken bones, but recovered. The fuselage on P-51s is well known to come apart in crashes, so the year before the crash they had strengthened the cockpit.



Painting I did in 1978 of the RB-51;



Several years later, he was back at Reno, flying a Super Corsair (With the Corncob/R-4360 engine)...He Won the trophy in 1985.

By the way, Steve married Karen, and had a son who, in 2009, became the youngest to win the Reno Championship (at 22)

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 11-26-2022).]

This is the Corsair that crashed in Mesa in 1994. It was sponsored by All Coast Forest Products. (people in California who chop down trees)



Here is a detailed description of the crash from the perspective of the pilot: https://www.aopa.org/news-a...uly/pilot/pilots-(6)

[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 11-26-2022).]

That P-38 was flown by Lefty Gardner...He was well known to fly extremely low- once they found BARBED WIRE lodged in his wingtip!



I saw both Rare-Bear and that P-51 w/contra-rotating props at Reno back around 2000

My father helped hold an F8F before take-off, so it could do a short take-off (Shortest take-off by conventional aircraft back in the late 40s...)

[This message has been edited by cvxjet (edited 11-26-2022).]