enginehistory.org

[wpearce]

On 2 September 2017, the heavily-modified P-51 Voodoo made an attempt on the 3 km record. The aircraft was flown by Steven Hinton Jr., and the attempt took place in Idaho. The unofficial speeds are as follows:

554.69
527.34
528.48
515.62 (engine trouble)
Average = 531.53 mph

The record the Voodoo team most wanted to beat was that of Lyle Shelton and Rare Bear. Shelton set the piston-powered 3 km absolute speed record of 528.329 mph on 21 August 1989. This record was “retired” when the NAA changed the rules by which the records are set. Regardless, Voodoo would need to go 1% faster, or 533.612 mph, to beat Rare Bear’s record.

Voodoo’s Merlin engine had developed some issues in the days leading up to the event and began to have some trouble after the third pass. The average speed of 531.53 mph is 2.1 mph short of the speed needed to better Rare Bear’s record

However, pending acceptance by the NAA, the 531 mph speed is a new record for Voodoo’s weight class (C1e). The current holder of that record is Will Whiteside in a Yak 3U at 416.03 mph, set on 11 October 2011. If the speed is accepted, Voodoo will be the fastest piston-powered aircraft in the record books. The fact that Rare Bear will retain the absolute record shows just how difficult it is to break these records and illustrates the incredible amount of effort the Rare Bear and Voodoo teams put into their respective record runs.

(Hopefully) linked below is video of the run taken by Pursuit Aviation. It is a Facebook page, but it should be accessible to anyone.
https://www.facebook.com/PursuitAviationCo/videos/471489633217915/
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Bill Pearce

www.oldmachinepress.com