Making the rounds yesterday was a video clip of some of the most astonishing flying I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even know things like this were possible.
The accompanying email offered the following information:
This is all real and there is no trick photography.
Not only is the airplane unbelievable but the pilot is also taking g-forces between about +8 and -4.
The airplane is an Edge 540 manufactured in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The engine is 540 cu. inches, 10.5:1 compression ratio, has a Cold Air induction System and is fuel injected …. engine preparation done by Barrett Precision Engines. It makes 320 BHP @ 2850 RPM and weighs 385 lbs. The airplane can fly inverted until it runs out of gas.
The pilot is Kirby Chambliss – he is a Red Bull pilot and Captain for Southwest Airlines.
Download the clip here.
One Comment
Normally I’d never do this on a publicly accessible website, but…
My Dad (an MD) owned a Cessna 182 which he used to “get away from it all” during lulls. He had STOL, LIDAR, a very impressive set of instrumentation, and the Lycoming/Continental engine was engineered and blueprinted by Barrett (in it’s infancy).
Turbo’d (not super-charged like the clip) equipped with oxygen for “at-altitude” damned thing was impressive. Alaskan flyers often expressed interest in purchasing it (alas it went to Blackwater [now Xe] where from there…).
Anywhere, Dad got old, hired a co-pilot to fly him and things happened as they should.
But damn, those Barrett engines were something to behold.
Especially if one was a fourteen year old landing on a 1200 foot strip ending with a 400 foot cliff on one end (White River, Arkansas) and a 200 foot cliff (Moccasin Creek) on the other.
And a Dad who flew F-4F’s off the deck of the USS Valley Forge (CV-45) during Korea.
I used to think he was stupider than me. I may’ve been right but he got to keep his pilot’s license.