Just for information: the real Dago Red runs a Merlin engine at about 2,400 horsepower or so, 3,600 rpm at 120-130 inches of manifold pressure.Lap speeds for Dago Red run about 470-490 mph on average, and I believe its top speed is about 490 at most.Dan

Hello Dan,you know my research - methods to didn

In other posts I've stated that the max speed of an aircraft depends more on wing area than on engine power. If you want to fly faster you need smaller wings. The downside is that you also HAVE TO fly faster since the stall speed will be higher. Conversely, if you fit a given aircraft with bigger engines you'll "hit the wall" and spend a lot of fuel going a few knots faster fighting the drag. It's the same with boats--if you quadruple the engine power of a non-planing design most of the extra power will be wasted on making a bigger wake.However, we know that these souped-up racers are for real. They are a basic WWII design with much more powerful engines. A possible problem when you take an aircraft beyond design speed (fuel consumption aside) is the extra strain on the airframe. Put bluntly, the engine may rip the wings off of it. Why doesn't anyone modify the aircraft by reducing the wing area instead? I suppose the answer is that then it wouldn't be a Mustang anymore. I'm just stating that a terrific engine may be the least efficient way to improve speed. But then, brute force is how the Mustang racers do it and I commend Ansgar for providing the model. Let's hope that the real DagoRed doesn't break up one day ;-)Hans Petter

Hello Hans,if we are at the "theoretical flight part" I also can give some hints, because I talked a lot also to the RC-pilots of F3D-pylons (i.e. Manfred Pic etc.):1. you

Enough of this idle speculation about how to make the plane faster. Its time to go to the experts, the Indianapolis 500 people, and learn from their experience. Since the Indy 500 cars always turn left, they are designed specifically for this task, and we must apply this to our plane designs to continue beating records. The following points are essential:1) Since we turn left all the time, we need to avoid stall on the inner wing (port). So build it twice the size of the starboard wing.2) Since we need to go fast on the straight yet generate massive g-force on the turn, we need fast deploy flaps with bracers, to increase wing size and thus lift on turn.3) Since our plane flies sideways most of the time, the tail/rudder asssembly needs to be rotated 90 deg to upright (sideways when we are on the ground).4) Since pilot spends most of his time sideways, he will get used to this and for safety should land the plane in this way. Undercarriage must therefore also be rotated 90 deg so that it extends sideways from the plane, using sufficiently long extension to clear the port wing. Pilot can then flip the canopy open and tumble gracefully to the ground. In honour of my friend Jon, I humbly submit this design as the Point Flyer, and look forward to the first designs from the talented experts on this forum.RobD.

Hello Robert!hmmmmm.....thats are an very exiting and total new theorie!!! :-jumpySo wait a short moment....... rumble, pumble, clacks, rummms, boing, clack... ;-)"Chacka!!! I got it!!"As you know from us talented developers: nearly NOTHING is really impossible for us! And so I tried to build the P51D optimized for speed flying as you requested:1. ground directed mainwing with twice the size than the other one2. double sized super fast flaps for it also3. tail and rudder assembly turned 90 degree to hold the "normal" control for it.4. the gears are rotated also 90 degrees to get it down save to the ground in the sideway direction without any additional turn back.The only compromise I must do is to "twist" a bit the fuselage, because the 90 degree turned rudder assembly doesn

Ansgar,:-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol :-lolThat makes my P51/Mazda 323 look tame. Are there ladder rungs in the wing or do we supply our own? Might be a horror on uneven taxiways...:-smile12Jon Point*************************([email protected])*************************

Testfly it? TEST FLY it??????!!!!!! :-eek Umm. Errrrr. Ahh, I'm busy this week.It does look kind of cute though. Congratulations on your new design. Now lets see if MSFS can top that! :-hah (flees from forum in blind panic)RobD (ex-plane designer).

Ansgar,I've met a couple Reno racers, including Lloyd Hamilton. I did some looking around and asking, and the radials are getting better than 4,500 horsepower and (I stand corrected) the Merlin 1710-7 and -9's just under or around 4,000 horsepower...BUT only for a VERY BRIEF TIME! The Merlins are running well into 130-150 inches of manifold pressure and nitrous oxide to make that number; they cannot sustain that output for more than a couple minutes at a time or temperatures exceed the structural strengths of the almuminum and steel the engines are made of. The original Merlins of WWII were running WEP (War Emergency Power) at 70" and 3,000 rpm...and for a very short time before the engine broke. (I seem to recall four minutes max for the P-51. Maybe it was five.)(Radials are more durable at the higher horsepower levels, because they are generating that horsepower with less MP, around 80-90 inches, and more cubic inches in displacement. Air cooled engines are less efficiently cooled than watercooled engines, hence the bigger, slower turning motors.)Regarding wing span, yes, the shorter wings produce less lift and drag (drag being a function of lift, too). However, interesting to note that since these racers are so stripped down, their wingloading is actually better than the original fighters.Excellent model, Ansgar...keep up the outstanding work!Dan

Yes by all means, Ansgar has made a beautiful and interesting model of the Dago Red :-) I hope that nobody took my "flight dynamics lesson" to mean that I didn't approve of Ansgar's model. I've downloaded it and flown around testing it and it acts pretty much like the stock Mustang, as long as you don't use all of the available power. It lands like a Mustang and this indicates that the basic specifications haven't been modified. I'm just a bit concerned that we get a "hotter" version of this and that, even of aircraft that are not supposed to be racers.The "caliente factor" seems to be all about fitting the aircraft with more powerful engines while the fuselage and wings stay unmodified.The Mustang case is fine since it represents a fast design that has been modified in real life but I sure don't want to see a "greased lightening" Cessna 172 :-) best regards,Hans Petter

Hans, I agree wholeheartedly. Thrust has to overcome drag...and the drag is half the equation.As a for instance, the Reno racers polish their aircraft until a rag will slide off the wing.Just increasing horsepower is sort of cheating...or can be. However, the stock Mustang in FUIII, though modeled very well, is just a little too slippery: she doesn't bleed speed quite as fast as she should, and that is only my opinion and not based on any factual data.Dan

Hi! Just wanted to post my best speed so far....on lap # 4 my speed topped out at 518 mph. i have not been able to break it as of yet. .but the wierd part is when you start the challenge, before you press any button it tells you your best speed for the particular class well instead of telling me that my best speed for Dago Red is 518 mph it says that its 483 mph. whats the deal???Thanks!Jimp.s. i love the sounds of this beast!

Hi Jim,the challenge will only use the speed over 6 rounds as best speeds. The speed over the entire race is calculated more exact than each lap speed - those are a little bit less exact. And as we have a real race there (and no qualifying), your best speed will always be calculated over the entire race. That's why your 518mph doesn't show up at race start.But you are free to try the 518mph over 6 rounds - that's what I fail to achieve for over 1 week now... :(Blue Skies, Steffen

Hello Jim, and all other Reno Racers!Yepp...I did it again...and topped my old Reno record of 509mph! ;-) :-jumpyNow I reached the legendary 6 x 518mph(in each single round) and an average speed of 514mph over the full 6 rounds! Great yeah?As Steffen said above there is a bigger integer-calculation mistake in the mph-calculation of each single round. This can

Steffen: Everything is going well here, and I am enjoying your race immensly. I just limit myself to either of the two Gee Bee's, and try to keep it on the course, and acheive my best speeds with it. Flying Dago Red, I can't even find the pylons. QUESTION - Will you be fixing the final results page to show last lap speed, and perhaps the total ?