Interview date: 7/31/2008, 8:00 P.M. EST.
William G. Statler, Jr (Bill) was kind enough to spend some time on the phone with me a few weeks ago. We had hoped to release this story when he released the video of the taxi tests on his web site, but they have experienced some delays in getting the video out. We'll be sure to mention when it is released in a future Indy Transponder post.
Team Wildfire is very excited about the progress of their air racer. Some minor problems with how the canopy seals are expected to be resolved in the very near future, and there are still some problems with the gear doors. Bill expressed some frustration with the gear door issue. He thought he had someone lined up to work the issue, but that didn't work out as planned so Bill is currently trying to find an engineer that can lend some expertise. However, the issues with the gear doors will not delay the beginning of the test flight program, which will be conducted by the well respected Dave Morss, who is also testing the Turbine Toucan. Dave is an experienced air race and test pilot, and all his details are on his web site.
Bill's father, William H. Statler, a former Skunk Works engineer, was the originator of the Wildfire concept. He was also responsible for seven patents and was a well respected aeronautical engineer. Read the story about Wildfire's creation and journey (to date) here, on the Wildfire site.
In addition to talking about Wildfire, Bill and I spent some time discussing the Unlimited class. Warbirds are becoming more valuable as stock airplanes now. As the World War II fighters become more expensive and more difficult to maintain due to the lack of parts, the idea of getting home-built aircraft back into the class might have some merit, not to mention some nostalgic value. After all, back in the Cleveland days of air racing, most of the planes were home-built! The Merlin engines used by the P-51 Mustang are becoming increasingly hard to find, so I asked Bill about power for his project. Wildfire is powered by an R-2800 and Bill assured me there is an abundant supply for them to tap into.
Most air racing teams consist of a group of volunteers. Wildfire is no different. Bill's team is pretty spread out now, and the work on Wildfire is pieced together as the crew has time. All the crew members have full time jobs and can only work on Wildfire during weekends and spare time. Bill is spending more time on the plane since he recently retired from Lockheed Martin Aircraft (Skunk Works-Palmdale), but said getting full-time work on the plane from the entire crew is extremely difficult.
Wildfire has not flown since it's first flight in October, 1983. The plane has been grounded since then. The entire project was put on hold until 1999 when the family decided to finish the project. Bill said there have been no modifications to the aircraft since it has flown, except for using a three bladed prop instead of a four bladed prop. The plane is now ready for flight testing.
Flight testing was scheduled to take place two weeks prior to our conversation. Bill said the forecast looked great for that day with minimum wind, and Dave flew out to perform the test pilot duties. By the time Dave arrived, wind gusts had increased to 25 knots and the team decided to do just the taxi tests.
When asked if any of the previous flight time counted for testing, Bill shared that they had to start over. Since the aircraft is built from scratch they need 25 hours of flight time before they can leave Mojave. In preparation for testing, Dave reviewed the test flight program that Bill's father prepared for Wildfire. He was very complimentary. Hopefully, we'll be reading updates on the Wildfire web site soon about the testing progress.
Wildfire is mostly a family project. Bill's brother, two sons-in-law, and a grandson have all contributed to the project and he shared that the family and the team are "... determined to finish this for Dad" and prove that he was right about the plane.
William G. Statler, Jr (Bill) was kind enough to spend some time on the phone with me a few weeks ago. We had hoped to release this story when he released the video of the taxi tests on his web site, but they have experienced some delays in getting the video out. We'll be sure to mention when it is released in a future Indy Transponder post.
Team Wildfire is very excited about the progress of their air racer. Some minor problems with how the canopy seals are expected to be resolved in the very near future, and there are still some problems with the gear doors. Bill expressed some frustration with the gear door issue. He thought he had someone lined up to work the issue, but that didn't work out as planned so Bill is currently trying to find an engineer that can lend some expertise. However, the issues with the gear doors will not delay the beginning of the test flight program, which will be conducted by the well respected Dave Morss, who is also testing the Turbine Toucan. Dave is an experienced air race and test pilot, and all his details are on his web site.
Bill's father, William H. Statler, a former Skunk Works engineer, was the originator of the Wildfire concept. He was also responsible for seven patents and was a well respected aeronautical engineer. Read the story about Wildfire's creation and journey (to date) here, on the Wildfire site.
In addition to talking about Wildfire, Bill and I spent some time discussing the Unlimited class. Warbirds are becoming more valuable as stock airplanes now. As the World War II fighters become more expensive and more difficult to maintain due to the lack of parts, the idea of getting home-built aircraft back into the class might have some merit, not to mention some nostalgic value. After all, back in the Cleveland days of air racing, most of the planes were home-built! The Merlin engines used by the P-51 Mustang are becoming increasingly hard to find, so I asked Bill about power for his project. Wildfire is powered by an R-2800 and Bill assured me there is an abundant supply for them to tap into.
Most air racing teams consist of a group of volunteers. Wildfire is no different. Bill's team is pretty spread out now, and the work on Wildfire is pieced together as the crew has time. All the crew members have full time jobs and can only work on Wildfire during weekends and spare time. Bill is spending more time on the plane since he recently retired from Lockheed Martin Aircraft (Skunk Works-Palmdale), but said getting full-time work on the plane from the entire crew is extremely difficult.
Wildfire has not flown since it's first flight in October, 1983. The plane has been grounded since then. The entire project was put on hold until 1999 when the family decided to finish the project. Bill said there have been no modifications to the aircraft since it has flown, except for using a three bladed prop instead of a four bladed prop. The plane is now ready for flight testing.
Flight testing was scheduled to take place two weeks prior to our conversation. Bill said the forecast looked great for that day with minimum wind, and Dave flew out to perform the test pilot duties. By the time Dave arrived, wind gusts had increased to 25 knots and the team decided to do just the taxi tests.
When asked if any of the previous flight time counted for testing, Bill shared that they had to start over. Since the aircraft is built from scratch they need 25 hours of flight time before they can leave Mojave. In preparation for testing, Dave reviewed the test flight program that Bill's father prepared for Wildfire. He was very complimentary. Hopefully, we'll be reading updates on the Wildfire web site soon about the testing progress.
Wildfire is mostly a family project. Bill's brother, two sons-in-law, and a grandson have all contributed to the project and he shared that the family and the team are "... determined to finish this for Dad" and prove that he was right about the plane.
1 comment:
I got this update from Bill this evening:
"I believe we talked after our taxi tests so there have been no more tests since then.
Parts for the canopy fix are made, now we just have to install them.
The video is in the hands of our video expert who is working with it. ... I'll keep you posted."
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