Here is some news on the Mach Buster. The Mach Buster was planned to be the first propellor plane to break the sound barrier. An article from 1986 says the racer was going to be test flown by Bill Montagne and reced by Bob Love. A partially completed Mach Buster was displayed at EAA Oshkosh in 1988. Then in 1989 Skip Holm agreed to fly the plane. The project was put on hold until more $$$ came in. Eventually David Rose bought the plane and it was entered in the 1998 and 1999 Reno programs even though it was not ready to race. Here are some updates on the "Buster". 3/3/03 Thanks for your interest Tate. We would have started it up last night but found one bad fitting on a cooling recovery line - so we should have it running in the next few days. Hope so - then we spend a week checking out the systems - and if that all goes well then two weeks taxiing around here - if THAT goes OK then we go down to Brown Field ( longer runway ) and start high speed taxiing - assuming nothing gives us serious problems, we could fly it the first time around mid to late April. David 3/20/03 OK the Machbuster has a voice now - we fired that big 1230hp motor the other day and did it ever sound GOOD - LOUD of course but good. In truth it's a lot quieter than we expected - the tri-y crossover exhaust quiets it down a lot - the tubes change diameter three times before reaching the collector. No problems encountered so now we're tuning and running all the final locations for lines, hoses, tanks etc and have to modify the mechanical fuel pump shut off valves to eliminate a space conflict at the front off the engine ( not much room inside this airplane anywhere) That should all take a few weeks - then we start taxi tests - sometime in April - we're still trying to get it ready for the pylon seminar in June - maybe yes maybe not - we'll see - but the engine runs well and the prop is fine so at least we have a shot at this year. I haven't been on the pylon1 site for some time - forgot about it really - I'll check it out. David 4/16/03 You were wondering how it goes with the Machbuaster - we've been running it - tuning and checking out the systems - we taxied the plane a 100 feet or so the other day but real taxi testing will wait for the all the systems checks to be completed. Those are always ( and we're no exception ) punctuated by surprises and subsequent delays. I see them going on for a month or two. Right now we're manufacturing the brackets and cable runs for a new positive fuel shut off, plus modifying the valve itself to fit the limited space- the one we had installed was a little hard to use. One thing we were interested in was the cooling capacity for ground use - turns out our little 10 gallon - three radiator capacity seems to be enough as the coolant temp sits right on the thermostat setting - so we're good for ground ops anyway. 'doesn't mean we'll have adequate cooling in the air, or at very high power settings on the ground, but at settings up to 3500 RPM on the ground ( only about 550hp ) we stay cool - so the value of that is we can spend as much time as necessary tuning and taxiing without the problem of overheat shortening the test time. We'll see how it cools in the air with 1200hp trying to heat soak everything. After we're satisfied with the systems operation we'll move on to the next point of real interest and that of course is a good static thrust check. We'll learn a lot at that point. If that tells us we have the static thrust we need then we'll know most of what the flight performance will be - it's great in the simulator but we'll see - As for our timing - you see from our progress that we are not rushing things - plus a lot depends on the availability and energy of those of us involved. You remember Eric and Jerry who crew with me on " Rags ", the three of us comprise the "crew" of volunteers building the Machbuster also. We've spent a few years together doing this and when it's ready it'll be ready. A realistic schedule would be: Thrust check in June Taxi tests July thru October First flight Jan - Feb Flight test Feb - June Pylon school late June ( they've told me they want the plane demonstrated on the race course - I don't blame em - it looks scary to me - hope we can find some fool willing to fly it - we don't think it CAN fly with that little wing - but then there's hope in the bumble bee, which according to all our computers can't fly either) Then Reno 2004 Well, lets call that an "optimistic" realistic schedule - so we don't look too bad if my new twin jet company ( The Meteor ) gets in the way of finishing this thing up. In truth - the bird is essentially finished - everything works - it runs well - the simulator has it flying just great - it looks sensational etc. etc. Thanks to Randy Haskin for all the history on it - I was never told that Skip Holms was so heavily involved in getting it started. He asked me about it once up at Reno, and I was pretty basic in my response to him ( not knowing he knew anything about it ) so he must have thought me an idiot. I'll have to explain to him - Montagney only mentioned that Skip was going to fly it but never said a word that I remember about Skips' being involved in the genesis of the bird. Now for some REAL optimism - I could tell him after winning the gold unlimited in 2004. Will it win the gold ? Will it be fast ? Will it ever fly might be a better question. Like everything else I've ever done, it's the journey that matters, not the destination. I've enjoyed all the work over the years - all the fabrication - all the planning and learning. Flying it will be a blast - but getting there is what you do everyday. You better be enjoying it because thats what there is. Meanwhile I've designed new a new lower wing for Rags to make it legal again - hope we have time to build it for Sept. I need another Brietling watch. Take care David So it looks like we won;t be seeing the Mach Buster at R2K3 but if all goes well we'll se it next year at the PRS.
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