Highest Speed Pass (with a piston engine)

I ran across this and found it pretty impressive.  This is the current record, which is an average of 531.64 mph.  Will anyone ever challenge this again?  You can scroll back to the beginning to get a bit more of an intro / setup.

Notes from the sponsors website:

Seattle, WA September 6, 2017: At a remote location in Central Idaho on a private airport on Saturday 09/02/2017 at 5:30PM Steve Hinton became the fastest pilot on the planet ever in a Piston Engine Propeller Airplane. Four laps over a three-kilometer course at an average speed of 531.53/MPH- the fastest lap was 554/MPH in a highly modified P51 Mustang. Aerodynamic wing modifications by Aviation Partners INC. played a key role in achieving the absolute world speed record over the 3-kilometer course. Aviation Partners, known worldwide for its Blended Winglets™ and Split Scimitar™ Winglets, on Business Jets and Commercial Aircraft used highly sophisticated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods to redesign the P51’s wing surface airfoils and to reduce and eliminate the strong shock waves created at Mach number 0.75 and 0.80. The modification thereby delayed the drag rise Mach number, allowing the P-51 to achieve higher speeds.

Hinton commented “The airplane accelerated much faster to the high-speed realm.” Hinton also said he saw a much faster airplane at 100 inches manifold pressure than he had ever seen before. Joe Clark, CEO of Aviation Partners, Inc. said “We agreed to sponsor the record attempt because we felt we could add significant value. That appears to be the case.” Clark added “We used the same drag reduction methodology on the Mustang as we used on the Boeing Jetliners and numerous Business Jets to make them more efficient.”

https://www.aviationpartners.com/absolute-world-speed-record-piston-engine-propeller-driven-airplane-set-steve-hinton-jr/

This plane normally looks like this in race trim. Will it race again?  Hard to say.  Race are supposed to be held in Rosewell next year, but I still have no idea how they will layout a track that doesn't pass over houses.

Not sure anyone has heard from this guy for a while (!?):

Wow! What a machine! I wonder what the engineers from North American Aviation would think if they could see that plane.

The level of aerodynamic cleanness of these planes is pretty insane.  You would think they are composite.  The stock P-51 is mostly flush riveted so it is pretty clean, this is wildly beyond that.

The one's who would really freak out though are the Rolls Royce engineers.  That engine is probably putting out 4000+ hp on that pass (1700 stock), with almost double the boost (60 inches is stock military power, this one is likely 150+) and water injection.  Those engine tend not to last very long needless to say.

What on earth is the second plane you posted a pic of? Looks straight out of Star Wars. 
also, modifying one of the ~150 remaining p51s has got to be a game for those with nerves of steel. Holy cow. 

Idaho?  While I was growing up, there were two P51's in Idaho Falls, one "normal" one and a racing RB51- which was *almost* the first piston plane to go 500mph.  One of it's tricks were counter rotating propellers.  Sadly, it crashed while I was in JrHigh.  

Always was memorable when it landed, as we were very near the northern landing pattern.

What a glorious clamor that beast makes!

dculberson said:

What on earth is the second plane you posted a pic of? Looks straight out of Star Wars.

I was thinking Crimson Skies

In reply to alfadriver :

Color me jealous sir.  One of my favorite planes ever, the famous Red Barron.  Unfortunately crashed at Reno when the prop governor lost all pressure, leaving all six blades at full flat pitch!  Steve Hinton, the pilot, did survive the crash (I actually have a small piece of it, and did see him at Reno last year), and guess what?  The pilot of the record holding plane above...

...Steven Hinton... his son.  Kid (probably early 20's in the video above) has a hell of a hobby!

Here is Reb Barron at Reno (the hanger in the background is where they hold the award ceremonies). The Griffon motor in it is essentially a big bore Merlin

It was fun making the inline guys squirm by reminding them a radial was faster. Rare Bare set the record of 528.33 in 1989. Took 28 years to beat the Bear... by only 3mph.

In reply to Appleseed :

A good load of nitrous helped also!  I cannot imagine the amount they had to use for a 3350 ci engine, but it sure was noticeable when he hit the button!  Supposedly a 500 hp boost!

The idea, that most assume, that radial engined planes are more draggy than inline water cooled is inaccurate.  They can, and have, been made more.  Rare Bear (above) is a prime example (the FW 190 is another).  You can see how little airflow disruption is actually needed to cool thousands of HP!

The only noticeable drag is the oil coolers, and at some point I believe they went to a boil off system for those also!

That paddle bladed prop sure made some interesting noises.

In reply to aircooled :

I always thought it was curious that the American radials needed so much more cooling opening that the BMW engine did.   I'm sure people tried, but they had to leave those more open.  And it was much worse on the early B29 Wright 3350.

It's also super cool to listen to a v12 to a radial at an air show.  

In reply to alfadriver :

Focke Wolfe tried a very tight cowling on the FW-190. They included a fan on the BMW radial. It didn't work. They ended up using a more conventional cowl, but kept the fan. German and Japanese radials never approached the size and complexity of American air cooled radials.

In reply to Appleseed :

But the FW190 was still one of the fastest planes in WWII, so it was sized well with the engine.  It is a surprisingly small plane.

Without data, I would wager, though, that the American radials were more robust in terms of taking damage and surviving.  Given that was a very high priority for the Navy in the Pacific.

In reply to alfadriver :

Absolutely.  Removing the cooling system as a target, which was a rather large, spread out, and vulnerable target, makes a huge difference.

For radials, the primary reason they were lost was oil loss (most oil cooler).  So guard that well, and you can take a lot of hits!

Interesting point of trivia about the quite ingeniously designed FW-190, is the oil cooler.  It can be clearly seen in the picture above (actually, that is clearly an early prototype and likely does not have this feature).  It's in the cowling ring surrounding the engine.  But that is not the ingenious part, because that would make is quite vulnerable.  The oil cooler is a ring around the inside of the collar, with the outside being armor.  The tendency for the airflow to attach to the gentle inside curve of the cowling caused it to curve up under the armor into the cooler.  Very creative, and very secure!

Yes, they still certainly did still get shot down.  But when you are in a small plane and some yank shots at you with 6 or 8 50 caliber machine guns, that will certainly happen!

Also of note, and regarding engine size, is the later, long nosed, D model 190 did have a liquid cooled Damlier-Benz motor because the needed more power and the Germans had no larger, high output, radials.  In this case the radiator was put in the cowling opening but is not tucked in or nearly as protected as the oil cooler was.

I kept hearing that a properly cowled radial would generate thrust from the cooling system.  Air expands when it gets hot, and all.

Regarding the WWII engineers and what they'd think... they'd probably wonder how "driveable" the aircraft is now.  The whole point of a fighter is to shoot at things, so most of their work was towards making the craft a stable and controllable gunnery platform.