Oshkosh 1999 Newswire: Day Four – Saturday, July 31
Welcome to AVweb’s exclusive daily coverage of Day Four of EAA’s AirVenture ’99, direct from Oshkosh.

Inhofe Is All Wet
Oklahoma Senator Braves OSH Camping
Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) may be an important person in Washington, but inOshkosh, he's just another pilot huddled in a tent in a terrible downpour. Theaviation-minded Senator is spending his 24th consecutive EAA AirVenture lookingat exhibits by day and sleeping under the wing of his plane by night. AVwebstole a few minutes with the Senator Saturday to find out the latest on aviationmoney in the form of the FAA reauthorization bill, also known as AIR-21 (H.R.1000).
Inhofe says the reauthorization bill could be voted on next week, but if it'snot and goes to conference instead, Congress won't get to it until the first ofOctober. No matter when the vote is taken, Inhofe says, his gut feeling is thatthe aviation trust fund will finally be taken out of the general budget. "Ithink the president will finally be prevented from stealing all the money out ofthe trust fund and putting it into social programs. You know, we have a realproblem in that this administration is very anti-aviation and it justdemonstrates that over and over again." Inhofe says the Congress' repeateddefeat of administration-proposed user fees should tell the president something.
The plan put together by Inhofe and Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) is good for GA,he says. In addition to more money for airports and FAA operations, it includesa "Bob Hoover" provision that says no pilot's license can be taken formore than seven days except on an emergency basis. Inhofe is also working tochange the funding formula so that state and local governments, not Washington,get to decide where airport money goes. Given the recent Mueller fiasco inAustin, Texas, though, that could be good or bad.
Inhofe says the biggest challenge to aviation is from his fellow members ofCongress who don't understand what aviation — particularly general aviation —is all about. "I've almost given up," he told AVweb. "WhenI came to Congress there were 11 active commercial pilots. Since John Glennleft, I'm the last one. So no one really understands."
Climbing The Stairway To Heaven
Bohannon Goes Vertical To Break Record
The airplane built to break records may have broken one on its first outing... or maybe not. Bruce Bohannon and his Exxon "Flyin' Tiger"attempted on Saturday to break the 3,000-meter (9,843 feet) time-to-climb recordfor piston engine aircraft at EAA AirVenture. At first, it appeared Bohannon hadmissed the record of 2 minutes, 31 seconds set by MayCay Beeler in a QuestairVenture in 1991 by two seconds. Later, frowns on his crews' faces turned totentative smiles as the videotape taken inside the Flyin' Tiger's cockpit seemedto show Bohannon might have broken the record, possibly by as little as half asecond.
That videotape is now in the hands of the National Aeronautic Association (NAA),which will probably not make an official finding for a few weeks. Bohannon willbe the new record holder if he flew the distance in 2 minutes, 26 seconds flat.To break an existing record, pilots must beat it by 3 percent or more. Eventhough the conditions seemed somewhat less than ideal — temperatures were inthe 80s and conditions were windy — Bohannon told AVweb it was hisactions that may have fouled him up. Bohannon says for the entire preflightbriefing, he kept his eye on a large flag flying show center and made his runwaydecision based on that flag. When he took to the runway, though, the flag hadswung around, leaving him on the downwind runway. Taking off on a downwindrunway might cost only one second in the overall attempt, but in Bohannon'scase, that one second might make the difference between a record and a recordattempt.
"I didn't fly the airplane as well as I could have," Bohannon said."I kept looking at the temperature gauge, and then I would let my airspeedget away from me." One of the reasons Bohannon kept his eye on the gauge ishis desire not to burn up his Mattituck engine while nitrous oxide was beingpumped into it. That certainly wasn't a problem on this run. Bohannon says hiscylinder head temps on Saturday never exceeded 425 degrees.
Bohannon took the possible loss with good humor. "Hey, I'm going to geta lot of good ink off this," he said. "It'll be a real mystery untilthe NAA makes its official decision." If the Saturday run wasn't goodenough for the record, Bohannon says he may just try it again with littlefanfare at his home airport in South Texas, then move on to some cross-countryrecords he'd like to break.
Bohannon is doing well, record or no, and just signed on another big sponsor,AlliedSignal Bendix King. That will add one more decal to his Tiger, whichalready sports multiple sponsor spots. Bohannon laughed when he told AVwebabout a conversation he had with a man who asked him if all the decals on hisbird slowed him down. "I told him they don't slow me down. In fact, theplane won't leave the ground without them."
How Swift Is My Fury
Roy LoPresti Presses On
In April at Sun 'n Fun, LoPresti Speed Merchant Owner Roy LoPresti wassurprised with a lawsuit filed by Aviat President Stu Horn. In the suit, Hornclaimed LoPresti was infringing on the Swift name copyright. Horn says the namebelongs to his company, which bought the right to use the name and the typecertificate from the Swift Museum. LoPresti claims he has rightful ownershipbecause he purchased the SwiftFury program from Piper, where it had languishedfor 10 years. In the ensuing weeks, LoPresti dropped the name "Swift"from his "Fury" project, and filed a countersuit against Horn to movethe trial to Florida.
The lawsuit isn't stopping LoPresti from going ahead with plans to market hisneon yellow Fury. The bright bird is on display at EAA AirVenture '99 andgetting attention, but LoPresti would like for it to get more. He says thecompany has taken 76 orders for the plane, which he thinks will sell for around$170,000, but he would like to have at least 280 orders before ramping upproduction. Production itself should take about two and a half years. "Theplane is in the process of being changed a little," LoPresti told AVweb."I'm changing some of the external contours and adding some drag-reducingfeatures that will make it faster. We changed the vertical tail shape on theairplane to make it less Swift-like and flush riveted."
Many of LoPresti's changes won't be visible. "You'll find when you movethe controls there is zero measurable friction. There is zero backlash and thatmeans you'll have good road sense. It's fingertip flying." LoPresti sayshis Swift bears no resemblance to the original Globe Temco versions. His Fury is3 feet longer, weighs 700 pounds more, has 200 hp and averages 180 knots onunder 11 gallons of fuel burn per hour. "We're confident any judge or jurywill be able to see that it's not the same plane. I really hope Stuart Horn andI can settle. It's not doing either of us any good."
Microsoft Offers Two Versions Of Flight Sim 2000
Pro And Standard Editions Feature Real-Weather Depiction, More Planes
The most-extensive upgrade ever of Microsoft's Flight Simulator programshould land on store shelves this fall and, if history is any barometer, flyright off those shelves again when pilots discover the range of new features andcapabilities of the software. For the first time, Microsoft is offering thesoftware in two versions: Flight Sim, 2000 Standard Edition, and Flight Sim 2000Professional Edition, the company announced Saturday at EAA AirVenture '99. Theformer is a powerful upgrade of the world's most-popular computer-based flightpackage, geared toward the casual flyer; the latter is a training tool forpilots who get flight-planning capabilities, advanced navigation features, andinstrument procedures training endorsed by Flight Safety International. Toexpand the software's appeal, Microsoft added aircraft types such as the Boeing777, the Concorde, Bell Helicopter 206B JetRanger III, Mooney Bravo and BeechKing Air 350.
The biggest leap from earlier versions is the ability to display weather,right down to rain and snow on the windshield, turbulence and lightning. And itcan show weather generated on-demand by the software, or download real-timecondition reports off the Internet and generate those conditions real-time fromthe downloaded data. Microsoft's Flight Sim development boss Bruce Williams saidthe software will be available this fall, priced at about $55 for the basicversion and about $75 for the pro version.
Boeing Beauty Began Airliner Dynasty
The airliner that began it all for a small aircraft company in Seattle,Wash., the Boeing 247D, made its first appearance at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh thisweek. Even though it was soon surpassed in its day by the Douglas DC-2 and DC-3airliners, it was the first in a long line of aircraft that would eventuallymake the Boeing Company the largest manufacturer of commercial airliners in theworld. Owned by the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash., but based at Paine Fieldin Everett, the 247D is one of only four left in the world, and the only onestill in flying condition. Boeing chief 767 project pilot Buzz Nelson and agaggle of restoration volunteers made the trip from the Seattle area to Oshkoshin 16 hours of flying over three days. That's a bit more leisurely pace than thethree hours it would take to fly the same route in today's state-of-the-artBoeing777. The trip is sponsored by the companies involved in the development ofthe original plane — Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and United Airlines.
For its time, the 247D offered a leap in comfort and convenience over theslow, noisy tri-motors then in use for passenger travel. The sleek, all-metalairliner was almost 50 percent faster than the tri-motors, and provided creaturecomforts such as a lavatory and individual overhead air vents for the 10passengers. The 247D was powered by two 550-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp enginesthat pulled the plane along at the then-unheard of cruise speed of 189 mph. Theairliner entered service with United Airlines in 1933, which bet its future onthe plane by ordering 60 of the 75 airplanes produced.
Brian Baum, of the Museum of Flight, told AVweb that the restoration took100,000 hours of volunteer manpower spread over 14 years, with the arduous taskfinally completed in 1994. One of those volunteers at EAA AirVenture '99 is DonHansen, a retired Boeing worker who spent 30 years with the company. Accordingto Hansen, the restorers had at their disposal many of the original drawingsused to build the airliner. In fact, some of the volunteers had started atBoeing as draftsmen preparing those very drawings! When the Boeing 247D returnsto the Seattle area after EAA AirVenture '99, it will continue to make flightappearances throughout the Northwest to show today's generation the humblebeginning of airliners in the United States.
No, Not THAT Tri-Motor
While the ubiquitous Ford Tri-Motor buzzes around Wittman Airport all daylong, carrying sightseers for the EAA, another beautifully restored tri-motorsits tucked into the middle of the Classics showplane field. The Kreutzer K-5was built in 1928 or '29, and is the only surviving example of the tri-motorline built by Joseph Kreutzer Corporation, of Venice, Calif. It served as anairliner for Navajo Airlines, in Arizona, and later as a transport for a Mexicangold mining company. The six-seater plane, now painted to look as it did when itflew for the airline, uses three 100hp Kinner K5 cylinder radials, cruises atabout 100 mph, and "flies like a big Cub," according to a sign postedin the shade of the wing.
The tri-motor sat in a hangar on an overgrown Mexican mountainside for almost40 years until a new owner, Fernando Garcia Contras, organized three expeditionsto rescue it. The first effort was stopped by torrential rains, the second bysnow, and the third, in 1983, succeeded only after a team of 34 people with 25animals broke through miles of jungle paths with machetes. After two years ofwork, the airplane is now restored to flying condition and based at the AnokaCounty Airport near Minneapolis, Minn., and owned by Greg Herrick, of Jackson,Wyo.
USAF Updates T-3 Firefly Program
USAF's Initial Trainer Still Troublesome
GeneralLloyd W. "Fig" Newton, commander of the U.S. Air Force's Air Educationand Training Command, visited EAA AirVenture '99 today to make and keepconnections with the aerospace and aviation community. He arrived in style,flying a C-21 Learjet from Randolph AFB in San Antonio, Texas. He also came tothank the GA community for responding to the Air Force's need for basic pilottraining since the grounding of the Slingsby T-3 Firefly. Pilots are currentlygetting basic training from their local FBOs, with the Air Force picking up thetab. Those FBOs have logged over 50,000 flight hours of cadet training.
T-3s are still grounded as the Air Force completes a series of flight testsafter modifying the fuel systems. The USAF expects those tests to be completedlater this year. Then General Newton, the Chief and DOD Secretary William Cohenwill meet and decide whether to put the Firefly back into service. Newton flew269 combat missions in Vietnam, including 79 missions over North Vietnam, andwas a pilot for the Thunderbirds in 1974. He's fresh from having flown the newTexan II, T6, and likes the airplane a lot. "It will clearly do the job,but there aren't enough of them in the fleet to take us from where we are rightnow."
Briefs...
Ten Die In Skydiving Crash
Attendees at EAA AirVenture '99 were saddened by the news of Saturday's crashof a Beech King Air 200 carrying nine parachutists from the Parahawks skydivingclub. All nine plus the pilot, Paul Myks, died when the twin turboprop came downless than half a mile from the Marine City Airport in Cottrellville Township,Mich., near Detroit. The crash came on the last of a three-day annual campoutevent for members of the club.
Cirrus Makes Like A Cloud ... And Floats Higher
If it seems that Cirrus Design's sales numbers change daily, it's becausethey, well, change daily. Friday at EAA AirVenture '99, on the hottest, mostmiserable day of the show, Cirrus was hot, too, selling four of its new SR20airplanes. "The weather was hot, but our sales were hotter," Cirrusspokesman Chris Maddy told AVweb. "Four in one day is unusual,though. It's more typical to have sales in the weeks following a show." Onereason for the surge to 337 total orders, Maddy believes, is that more peopleare discovering that deliveries have begun. The picture on orders wasn't alwaysso rosy. When the company transitioned from soft "position" orders tohard "send money now" orders three years ago, 50 percent of thecustomers got cold feet and backed out. Cirrus execs pressed on, and orderspicked up. They show no sign of slowing, and that makes even the hottestWisconsin day a cool breeze.
We Don't Need No Stinkin' Vacuum System
Seagull Technology, of Los Gatos, Calif., demonstrated a prototypesolid-state flight instrumentation system at AirVenture '99 that could eliminatevacuum systems and mechanical gyros in future GA planes. The FlightSense systemintegrates aircraft-mounted GPS and solid-state inertial sensors to provideinstantaneous attitude, heading, altitude and position information to thecockpit. The data generated by the redundant FlightSense system can easily bedisplayed on multi-function flat panel displays that are just around the cornerfor GA. Seagull Technology has a basic FlightSense system flying alongside aconventional vacuum system in a Raytheon Bonanza to collect performance andreliability data. The company hopes to have a certified system availablesometime in 2001.
Embry-Riddle Team Wins GA Design Competition
A team of future aerospace engineers from Embry-Riddle AeronauticalUniversity in Daytona, Fla., was awarded first place in the National GeneralAviation Design Competition by NASA Administrator Dan Goldin at EAA AirVenture'99 on Saturday. The competition requires teams of students from engineeringschools to design a two- to six-passenger GA aircraft. The winning Embry-Riddledesign was an affordable four-seat light jet with a Williams FJX-2 jet engine.The team members who enthusiastically accepted the award at EAA AirVenture '99included Justin Williams, Mike Mercer, Patrick Sween, Robert Byrne, andProfessor Chuck Eastlake, the team advisor. The competition is co-sponsored byNASA, the FAA, and the Air Force Research Lab, with support from AOPA and EAA.
Spirit Of Flight Award Recipient Named
At Saturday night's Theatre In The Woods, Burt Rutan presented Mike Melvillewith the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' SPIRIT OF FLIGHT award, sponsoredby Rutan's company, Scaled Composites. Melville flew to Oshkosh in the Proteusat FL500. Melville said, "When we descended, we went from an OAT ofminus-74 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The airplane fogged up inside and welogged a little IMC right inside the airplane."
