Back to the subject of 1930s racer replicas, just for fun a friend in the US and I sat down this evening and came up with a list of as many as we could. We think that a grand total of 4 are still flying in the US (one of them a very recent build), with over 40 previously-airworthy ones now grounded. In the UK we came up with 4 still flying (2 of them brand-new). It seems that the reality of operating them soon sets in for most of the builders/owners/pilots once the euphoria of putting something unseen for decades into the air wears off. I do note that even Steve Hinton was badly hurt in one some years back.

I don’t suppose his book is the first to be filled with errors. Why does that make him an “asshole”?

Spend a few minutes on Google. Read about how he wrecked the Bowlins’ T-6, and walked away leaving them with the bill. And then took them, previously good friends of his, to court. And appealed when he lost, also losing the appeal (look up “Yeager vs Bowlin”). Also look up how, after Jack Roush used to let Yeager fly his P-51s for free, Yeager wanted to charge Roush a fee for having his aircraft painted in the colours of his wartime mount (which is why none of the currently flying P-51s are painted as ‘Glamorous Glen’, all having been repainted). Look up his numerous instances of his downright rudery to the public at events he appears at (instances of which I have witnessed), and the fact that you are expected to pay a fee to use any photo taken of him at said appearances.

Then contrast that with the unfailing good humour and gentlemanly behaviour of Bud Anderson on every occasion I have been fortunate enough to meet him, both at Duxford and in the US.

Like I say, asshole.

I’m sure the above is true, but it does seem interesting to me that the builders chose to spend either many thousands of hours researching and building them, or many thousands of dollars paying someone else to do all that for them, knowing from the off that they are impractical aircraft (as Planemike contends) and are likely to have rather nasty flying characteristics.

That may be so. I just find it interesting that virtually every ‘Golden Age’ replica racer built (and there have been quite a few), be they Gee Bee, Comet, DH.71, Howard or whatever, have ended up parked in the corner of a museum or stored in someone’s private hangar.

A huge amount. This article is a few years old now, but gives an idea of what is there.

http://www.aeroclocks.com/images/pics_articles/Stafford%20June%2006.pdf

http://www.dh71tigermoth.com/

It depends on how old the engine in the Peter Jackson (formerly TFC) F.2b in New Zealand is in comparison.