Best speed/range single?

[Heliport]

I've just been reading about Alex Henshaw who died last weekend. Link (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=265662)

His epic flight from London to Cape Town and back set single engine aircraft records which have stood for almost 70 years.
Outbound: 39 hours and 23 minutes at an average speed 209.44 mph.
Return: 39 hours and 36 minutes.

Which modern s/e aircraft could beat those records?

[Mark 1]

The record is listed by the FAI as 244km/h (about 130 kts), but that is the average for the whole journey and pretty remarkable by any standard, more so for one that has stood for 68 years.

On paper, ther are quite a few aircraft that could do it, with 150+kts cruise and good endurance.

Even if I had the cash and resources to attempt it in, say, a Lancair 4P, it would feel like cheating to take the record away from Henshaw.

[IO540]

A TB20, carrying one person and not too much junk, will do over 155kt TAS for 8.5 hours, at 10,000ft.

That's just about from the south UK coast to Crete. I've verified this a few times, although not to the zero-fuel point, obviously :)

Others (some Mooney I believe) have long range tank options and will do over 2000nm; long enough from the US east coast to the Azores (though probably with tailwind).

The flying is easy - you sit there with the autopilot tracking the GPS. It just gets really boring if you are above an overcast layer and can't see anything.

The work in these "ensurance flights" is not the flying; it's the logistics. You spend a year organising corporate sponsorships, shipping avgas to far away places in drums, overflight and landing permits, survival gear, comms with base, you name it.

Nowadays, IFR is a must not because one could not fly it VFR but because the permits are for a specific date (or a couple of dates if you are lucky) and you can't just hang around waiting for weather.

I would guess that 68 years ago the hardest bit was navigation, followed by physical hardship in the cockpit. Not to mention the risk of engine failure in those Victorian-design machines.

Nowadays, for a crude record beating job in an SE plane, you would take a TBM700 or similar.

[foxmoth]

it would feel like cheating to take the record away from Henshaw.

I think when these records were set they were to stretch the capability of aviation and Alex would be very happy to have it beaten.:D

[stiknruda]

Foxmoth, I totally concur, however, having initially met the man 20 yrs ago, then reforged links 15 years ago - I feel he'd have been game to give competition!

I'm often asked if I'd like to fly a Spitfire - I always answer in the negative. If I were asked the same of the Mew Gull, I'd certainly want to try her out! When she went to Breighton, I spent hours caressing her. BB was very kind and let me sit in her.

I genuinely do not believe that Henshaw's acheivements prior to WWII have been totally understood!

I last saw Alex at Duxford in 2005.

RIP Sir

Stik

[flyingfemme]

Nowadays, for a crude record beating job in an SE plane, you would take a TBM700 or similar.

Not exactly - records are banded by MTOW and they no longer count number of crew. That means that solo records are no longer tracked. Anything apart from the lowest weight band tends to have two-crew, thus no overnight stops are needed. Apples and oranges, I'm afraid.

[Darth_Bovine]

I'm often asked if I'd like to fly a Spitfire - I always answer in the negative

I wish I had friends like yours! :cool:

[foxmoth]

nything apart from the lowest weight band tends to have two-crew, thus no overnight stops are needed. Apples and oranges, I'm afraid.

But anyone who was doing this with any honor would do it single crew!:D

[IO540]

OK, to replicate that record in a 155kt TAS plane, one would need to keep fuel stops to under 1 hour approximately.

At that rate, London to Cape Town would be an astonishing feat of endurance - the GC distance (EGKK-FACT) is 5202nm and one reasonable airways route (FL130, low airways) is 5466nm.

It would be about 35hrs' airborne time; not sure if a pilot can stay awake for that long but I suppose one could sleep while on the autopilot... so long as it isn't a Honeywell KFC225 ;)

[Spitfire78]

Seeing as though the 'Gull was in the 500-1000kg class, are there IFR capable machines that could do it under 1000kg all up? I suspect anyone who actually makes it today will appear in a different weight class alongside Alex and not instead of him.

[IO540]

I am not aware of any IFR certified plane under 1000kg that can do 140kt+.

But there are ones in the "ultralight/permit/experimental" class which can do say 140kt, have the 1000nm+ endurance, and which are IFR capable in the sense they can safely (but illegally) fly in cloud etc. If you look around you see a lot of permit spaceships with more/better kit than an (old) 747, and there is no prize for guessing what their owners do with them given half a chance.

But these sub-ICAO classses would need a permit for each airspace - not feasible today unless you go illegally and hope nobody notices (which is a reasonable policy).

Perhaps none of this mattered in the old pre-ICAO pre-CofA days. You could have done the trip on a broomstick, without a PPL of any kind.

[Justiciar]

But these sub-ICAO classses would need a permit for each airspace - not feasible today unless you go illegally and hope nobody notices (which is a reasonable policy).

Didn't one person circumnavigate the globe in an RV4, and another flew one to Antarctica (where he ran out of fuel, if I recall). It must be possible to get clearance, although tedious.

When Alex Henshaw did his flight he used pretty much the most up to date technology of the time. It is ironic that taking that approach now would be an exercise in monitoring the automatic systems! To make it a challenge you would have to revert to basics, but how realistic is that approach. Better to leave men like Alex Henshaw with the fame and glory that they so richly deserved. They were men of their time and we will not see their like again. But, new and different challenges await much higher and further.

[Mark 1]

I think doing it in a home-built would be true to the spirit.
Indeed jon Johannson has managed two circum-navigations in his RV-4, both E-W and W-E. He also made use of Polly Vacher's fuel in Antartica, when she was unsuccessful in crossing that continent recently (I hesitate to call it a failure). Last year a guy flew his homebuilt around the world from Gloucester attempting a speed record, which sadly got spoilt by a week of bad weather keeping him in Hawaii, but several other records were broken en-route.

The planning for these trips is a horrendous task, and , in theory, the day/vfr restriction of UK permit aircraft would rule it out for the Cape-Town record. In principal though it is achievable on a 160HP homebuilt and plenty of determination.

[Spitfire78]

The Gloucester one (google Chasing the Morning Sun) was an RV6 ... sounds like an amazing trip, one for the "10 things before I die list" ...

Read on a SA based forum (not Gunn's) of a fellow that may be contemplating going for this record in his RV6. Not sure if the SA homebuilt regs also specify day/vfr though. Out of interest, do the Americans allow IFR certification of their experimentals? Might have a hard time convincing the UK CAA to allow that sort of thing ... but maybe with careful planning one could get through the United States of Europe VFR, then do the African legs IFR?

[IO540]

US exps can fly IFR, but I don't know the rules/restrictions.

It's a good point about homebuilts - this record cannot be broken unless flying at night.

[Justiciar]

I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would happily fly at night over dessert or jungle in a single piston engined aircraft:( I have boundless admiration for those that have, such as Alex Henshaw and those incredible Lysander pilots in WWII.

[Mark 1]

The US homebuilts can fly IFR in the USA if suitably equipped, but if they come to the UK they are subject to AWN52, which specifies day/vfr. Other countries may authorize on a different basis. For instance I've just recieved a permit authorization for Portugal which is subject to "the limitations and restrictions of the permit to fly"

It seems that they turn a blind eye to this in practice. But if something was to go wrong....

[PCentR]

Certified aircraft equipped with ferry tanks usually lose the normal category and have to fly under experimental while modified for range. Overflight permits in many countries require proof of insurance which can be very hard to get for experimental aircraft.
I set up a C210 with extended tanks. I had a choice of a weight limitation and FAA 337 approval of the internal cabin tank retaining the normal certificate, or an overgross permit and experimental category. I opted for the normal category with the weight limitation, leaving some unused tank capacity. Still, the worldwide geographic coverage was very difficult to obtain, taking almost two years of searching.
The 210 has a broad cg range and with full fuel in the tanked configuration, this plane has a range of well over 3000 nm. With extreme range, prepositioning of fuel isn't necessary, but flights are rather long with attending issues of night flight and difficulty obtaining current weather conditions, etc. Careful planning certainly smooths the way, but the flights are more than just gps and autopilot.

[J.A.F.O.]

I cannot imagine circumstances in which I would happily fly at night over dessert or jungle in a single piston engined aircraft I have boundless admiration for those that have, such as Alex Henshaw and those incredible Lysander pilots in WWII.

Okay, not happily, but how about with a certain amount of trepidation, a parachute, a SARBE and some survival kit - go on, you only live once. :E

[charliegolf]

A SARBE! You're showing your age and pedigree JAFO.

CG

[Justiciar]

go on, you only live once.

Well I did chose my words very carefully ;) If opportunity and circumstance combine then we can be driven to great and somethines reckless feats.

Coming back to the original point of this thread, the late Alex Henshaw, his last book "Across the Great Divide" describes hours of flying in a single engine Miles across great tracts of jungle and through massive thunderstormes without apparently batting an eyelid. I suspect that these days it is the man made obstacles which are the real disincentive to these sorts of flights.:ugh:

[J.A.F.O.]

I'll search for a couple of his titles; I'm ashamed to say that I've never read any of his books and I'll put that right ASAP.

CG - Guilty as charged.