There are 4 left in Italy (although the MC.72 is not technically a Schneider racer as it never competed in the contest) including a Macchi M-39 and Fiat C-29

Plus Doolittle’s Curtiss R3C-2 in the Smithsonian

And then the 2 S.6s (Science Museum and Solent Sky, although that one is now out on tour I believe)

That’s it!

Just heard a bunch of the jets have been either disqualified or not allowed to race for some reason.

The Viper-engined L-29s have not been allowed to race due to engineering issues with the mounting of the much more powerful engines. The mount on Heather Penney’s L-29 broke during PRS in June, and the jet eflux in the rear fuselage almost melted the tail off before she could land. It turned out that the guy doing all the Viper mods to the L-29s was also the Reno tech inspector for the class, so was signing off his own work!

Personally I think that they should just shut down the jets altogether. It’s only a matter of time before one ends up in the crowd. Having watched Brad Morehouse hit the ground in his L-39 a few years back (and only miss ending up in the pits by pure luck) and seen a T-33 pull up off the final turn with hydraulic controls locked (fortunately missing the other racers who managed to stay out of his way at over 500mph), I believe they are just too fast for the course.

Similar to an incident recently in Texas (Might have been May, or there abouts, or last year) where a B-25 (or a large aircraft of age and twin tails) had a gear, engine, and/or ID10T mechanical issues (possibly) that resulted in “unintended landing configuration” and possible damage to structure and/or paint scrapeage. The wife of current Texas goub’ner (and now Pres’dent candidate for US) Rick Perry was allegedly in or around said unconfirmed aircraft and was involved in some way. Or not.

Rumor is dumb dumb forgot to lower the gear.

Then you’ve been listening to the wrong rumours, since it is not normal practice to ‘forget to lower the gear’ when on the take-off roll!

One year at Oshkosh, Gary and I watched in horror as a pilot in a spitfire kept doing stall turns……

Was that the same year that he posted shots here of the Stearman-to-helicopter transfer, and flounced off the forum in a huff when people said that it looked dangerous? Just curious.

It’s funny as I walk to work across the fields in a morning………

Do you have to walk to work now Ian? Have you run the pumps dry of Diesel at the local filling station?

I was also wondering, were any other aces on any side of the war ever known to have been shot down by friendly fire (either air to air or by flak or shps, etc?)

Absolutely. George Preddy (Christmas Day 1944) springs immediately to mind.

The simple fact is that it’s not a newsworthy story in comparison with your example of Richard Noble’s ‘Thrust SSC’ project.

British Land Speed record, first official supersonic record, proven organisation with history of success (Thrust II) behind it, good potential exposure across the world for sponsors….

vs

Immenent failure of return-to-flight of a project involving an aircraft that isn’t Concorde or a Spitfire (the only recognisable aircraft names to the majority of the non-airshow-going public).

I’m sure that many people are doing all that they can to get publicity, the simple fact is that it isn’t newsworthy enough in the eyes of the majority of the national media. Added to the fact that there must be a certain ‘we’ve heard it all before’ wearines from many areas of the media, due to the ‘give us the money or we’ll scrap it’ stance very publicly adopted by the project management since day one.