Die ist mir bis dato durchgegangen - mal was
gaaaanz anderes
The aircraft that became known as ’The Jägermeister’ was an ambitious racing aircraft project from Germany, that took part in the US National Air Races at Reno during 1967-69.
The Jägermeister was built from a disassembled He 100D wreck which was found in 1962. It was found during constructions at the Heinkel plant at Bremen, buried in the ground, probably during the final days of WWII before Allied troops took over the site. The aircraft was in poor condition, but complete and still structurally intact.
The find was a minor sensation, since none of the few He 100 built were known to have survived the Second World War – but unfortunately no public funding for restoration could be achieved. In 1964 Heinkel finally sold the airframe to a private owner, the company Mast-Jägermeister SE and its respective owners, the Findel-Mast family. Mast was (and still is) famous for its herb flavored 70-proof (35%) liqueur Jägermeister, which was first brought to market in 1935.
The Wolfenbüttel-based company had been sponsoring car racing, and as an innovative PR measure it was decided to re-build the He 100D and attack the absolute air speed record!
What sounded like megalomania had a sound basis: The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel which proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development. But the design was not ordered into series production, less than 20 prototypes and pre-production machines were built.
Re-building the aircraft proved to be difficult, though: Because there were no complete surviving examples, and since many factory documents - including all blueprints for the He 100 - were destroyed during a bombing raid, there was limited specific information about the aircraft’s design and its unique systems. The most significant feature of the original He 100 design (which was missing in the later D variant, though) was an evaporative cooling system. This installation under the wing surfaces and without a draggy radiator bath for the liquid-cooled Daimler Benz engine allowed a very clean airframe and high aerodynamic efficiency. For the re-built aircraft, this revolutionary system was to be re-constructed, as well as an original Daimler Benz DB 601 engine, tuned for high performance. The latter was expected to yield around 2.000hp instead of the original, pre-war 1.200hp, even though for just short periods.
Despite these challenges the project was tackled and the aircraft re-built as a civil high speed race plane. This reconstruction was done at Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke in Hamburg, an association of many former German aircraft manufacturers, including Heinkel.
The resurrected He 100D was christened ‘Jägermeister’ and made its maiden flight in August 1966, bearing the civil registration ‘D-WILD’. But by then the idea of attacking the air world speed record had been dropped – despite the theoretical potential of the aircraft to break the 800 km/h (500 mph) barrier. Funds for the project from the Mast family were reduced, and eventually the finished aircraft was sold to the United States. The aircraft kept its all-orange livery, though, as Mast-Jägermeister SE was still a sponsor and hoped for PR in the USA as a potential new market.
In September 1967 and with the American pilot George Fransworth at the controls, ‘The Jägermeister’ made its debut at Reno’s National Championship Air Races in the Unlimited Class with the grid number ‘43’, where it raced against several much bigger warbirds. The compact and slender aircraft looked diminutive between the much larger Mustangs, Corsairs and Sea Furies - but thanks to its good aerodynamics the aircraft was very competitive, despite only half of the “Big Birds’” power, and even though extra weight had to be added in order to reach the 4.500 lb minimum empty weight limit for the Unlimited Racer class!
During the 1969 Reno Air Races, The Jägermeister suffered a major engine failure. While Farnsworth could keep the aircraft under control and bring it down, the landing attempt ended in disaster and the airframe had to be written off.
General characteristicsCrew: 1
Length: 26 ft 11 in (8.20 m)
Wingspan: 26 ft 5 1/2 in (8.08 m)
Height: 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m)
Wing area: 134 ft² (12.5 m²)
Empty weight: 4.361 lb (1.980 kg)*
Loaded weight: 5.420 lb (2.460 kg)
*raised to 4.500 lb when starting at the National Championship Air RacesPowerplant1× modified DB 601M V12 race engine with up to 2.000hp (1.470kW), driving a five-bladed propeller
PerformanceMaximum speed (theoretical): 800 km/h (432 kn, 496 mph) at 20.000 ft
Range: n/a
Service ceiling: 10.000 m (28.250 ft)
Rate of climb: n/a
Wing loading: 158,4 kg/m² (32,5 lb/ft²)
Power/mass: 742,4 W/kg (0.46 hp/lb)
Das Modell:Quatsch mit Soße, oder eine Interpretation der Reno Air Races? Dieses kleine 1:72-Modell was letztes Jahr ein Beitrag zu einem air racer group build auf whatifmodelers.com - spontan, und eine nette Abwechslung vom üblichen (fiktiven) Militärkram
Die Basis war - typisch für die Unlimited Racer - ein demilitarisierter und getunter Warbird. Nur sollte es nix Amerikanisches sein, ich wollte einen "deutschen Beitrag" leisten. Die üblichen Kandidaten wie Bf 109 oder Fw 190 sind aber schnell ausgeschieden, denn ich fand die glücklose He 100D, die u.a. für Rekordflugzwecke benutzt worden war. Nur 15 Maschinen wurden vor Kriegsbeginn wirklich gebaut, viele gelten als verschollen - warum soll also so ein Ding nicht wieder auftauchen und eine zweite Karriere starten...
Um die schlanke He 100D (1:72 Special Hobby kit, kommt mit Ätzteilen und ist sehr filigran - toll! Die antike Allternative von Lindberg/Revell ist ein Witz, Finger weg!) noch weiter in Richtung Speed zu treiben, gab es noch ein paar Tuning-Maßnahmen:
● Gekürzte Flügelspitzen (in ceht ca. 90cm weniger Spannweite)'
● Neuer 5-Blatt-Propeller (von einer Griffon-Spitfire) inkl. neuem Spinner
● Neue Auspuffanlage (von einer P-51)
● Flachere, strebenlose Haube
● Eine moderne Pilotfigur
● Weg mit dem Unterrumpf-Kühler (Racer haben z. T. Eis- oder Verdampfer-Kühlung, da nur Kurstrecke geflogen wird)
Beim Anstrich habe ich voll in die Klischeekiste gegriffen - weitere Worte überflüssig?
Der Basislack ist Seidenmatt Orange von Modelmaster, mit leichtem Panel-Shading. Die Aufkleber gehören eigentlich auf 1:43 Slotcars, man findet wunderbare Decal-Bögen. "D-WILD" passt historisch nicht ganz (das Thema kam viel später), es passte aber wunderbar - die Registrierung wurde mit Einzelbuchstaben von TL Modellbau zusammengepuzzelt. Zum Schluss gab es zwei dünne Lagen Glanz-Klarlack.
Whiffing mal anders!
Thema: What if? "The Jägermeister" Unlimited Class Reno Racer (ex He-100D) (Gelesen 3556 mal)
