Debut's are all very well, but some things bear repeating. Rich Goodwin's steadfast refusal to accept the laws of physics is one such spectacle, so he's back for a third year in a row.
Three years, three engines, three million horsepower. Alright, we made that last one up but this truly unique aircraft does indeed have three engines. There's the 'normal' one, powered by pistons thrashing about and enough to make this aircraft, a Pitt's Special, be re-classified as a 'muscle Pitts'. It's the other two engines which are somewhat out of place. They're both jets. Jet engines are not normally fitted to propeller driven biplanes. Sorry, by 'not normally' what we meant was 'never'. Rich doesn't do normal and never isn't a word he can be bothered with.
So what we have here is an aircraft which makes all manner of contrasting noises as it goes up vertically, literally like a rocket, and then just sort of hovers, still vertical, but not really moving at all. This is achieved by paying some considerable attention to physics and creating a situation of a 1:1 power to weight ratio. It's too complicated to explain that ratio in detail, simplest really to say that it doesn't exist unless you have billions in budget, are called Lockheed Martin and create an aircraft with a nine figure price tag. Rich doesn't have any of that, but he's rather ingenious and also one of the most staggeringly good pilots you'll see anywhere in the World.
He's so good you'll see the other pilots all come out when they hear the distinctive noise of two jets trying to be louder than one big piston engine. They, like us, want another opportunity to figure out just how he does it. We already know why he does it, it's because he can.
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