WIX Archives

Re: WildFire

Posted by bdk on Thu Feb 14, 2002 01:01:24 PM

In reply top Re: WildFire posted by Jim H on Thu Feb 14, 2002 10:51:42 AM

I saw this POS at Van Nuys when it was under construction. At that time it had a rediculous looking bundle of snakes masquerading as a "tuned exhaust." It was later moved to Mojave for test flying. I forget who the original pilot was, but he was almost killed trying to get once around the pattern. The aircraft was nearly uncontrollable I remember hearing at the time. It pitched up on takeoff and the pilot had to keep doing wingovers to avoid a stall as he made his circuit. He naturally refused the next flight opportunity after the C.G. or horizontal stabilizer position was adjusted.

The next pilot was Skip Holm, who nosed the aircraft onto the prop during taxi.

My understanding is that the aircraft then got tied up in litigation over ownership and was still in a hangar at Mojave.

Why anyone would try to make a 500 MPH airplane out of a 200 MPH (downhill) airplane is beyond me. I don't see what they thought they could save over a newly designed airframe. I think there were just too many compromises to be made to accomplish the objective.


: : : : wildfire was a r-2800 conversion but never flew..
: :
: : The aircraft was detailed in a racer issue of Air Classi
: cs
: : a few years ago that profiled Dreadnaught, tsunami and
: Wi
: : ldfire... The story I heard was that it was completly un
: fl
: : yable and never really did get off the ground, though it
: w
: : as tried. It went back into the hangar in Mojave, and m
: ay
: : have been reduced back to parts by this time. I believ
: e
: : it simply did not work. It never left Mojave for Chino
: as
: : far as I know.
: :
: : Joe
:
: Michael O'leary wrote that the a/c did fly once and was h
: orribly unstable, barley making it back in one piece. This
: took place at Mojave, and has been locked away ever since
: . There are some great photos of this white beast in an ol
: d issue of A/C or W/I...if anyone wants the issue I'll sta
: rt digging
:
: jim

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