Welcome to the Cameron Aircraft website for the Team 51 Unlimited Air Racer.
Murdo Cameron is currently in the process of putting the key people and pieces
in place, to begin construction of an Unlimited Air Racer based on his Grand 51
Mustang design. Murdo came up with the idea of calling the organization TEAM 51
based on two points. The first point is that he has officially registered the
race # for the aircraft, #51. A splendid Race number I think. The second point
being that the aircraft hasn't been officially named yet, and Murdo wants to
stress the importance of THE TEAM. I like that idea very much.
Originally, Murdo's idea was to design the racer around a
turbine engine. This was a logical process, as the Grand 51 was designed with
this installation from the beginning, due to the availability of the Lycoming
T-53 L701A motor. The following is an excerpt from the original Air Racing
website:
1) Reliability. The ability to stage multiple events, even weekly events in the summer season.
2) Use Unlimited Hydroplane racing as a model, e.g. with piston power, 5 events per season, with turbine power 12 to 15 events per season. Quite often with piston power, only 2 out of 5 hydroplanes finish an event. With turbine power you should have at least 4 out of 5 finishing, thus giving you greater parity.
3) Multiple events would result in more television coverage and the ability for teams to acquire major sponsorship, thus offsetting costs.
4) Worldwide availability of turbine power. Older turbines at comparable horsepower to the existing piston horsepower of the unlimited category can be purchased at a fraction of the cost. These turbines are available from military, civilian, and salvage, as well as from Russian and Chinese sources.
5) The ability to maintain and repair, e.g. the unlimited hydroplane shops do their own work, and there are a multitude of turbine repair shops across America.
6) There are large groups of turbine mechanics to draw from, such as, military and commuter airlines.
7) The investment level to build a turbo-prop unlimited air racer will be much lower than that of the existing equipment. Therefore encouraging more racers to be built, even some foreign entries which would be the greatest boom to air racing. A good example would be The America's Cup.
Unfortunately, (fortunately?),
Unlimited Air Racing has not found a place for a turbine powered Racer and
therefore, Murdo has decided to go with the Allison. This is not a major
redesign though. The aircraft was also designed to accept a conventional Allison
or Rolls Royce Merlin powerplant installation.
There is one Allison V-1710 powerplant currently
being built up, (one or possibly two -90 series for transport motors), with
plans for a -115 or -130 series race motor to be built by
Unlimited Hydroplane engine builder Peter Orton. A friend of Murdo's, Peter is based in the Seattle
area and is intimately familiar with the motor and peripherals. The Allison is,
at this point, the engine of choice for a couple of reasons, availability and
durability being the most important. The aircraft will be built in the facility
that Murdo owns at the Coeur D'Alene Airport, in the scenic northern panhandle
of Idaho. While not actively seeking sponsorship until several components are
complete and the Racer is well on it's way to component assembly, Murdo may be
contacted by interested parties, (contact information below), for sponsorship
inquiries. For now, a name has not been decided on, but there are several good
ones to choose from. A paint scheme has not yet been decided on as well. Murdo
is keeping that option open depending on sponsorship, or a name that is indisputably
the best, which is understandable.
Due to the weight reduction resulting from the
carbon-fiber construction of the aircraft, Murdo has complete confidence in the
ultimate combination of motor and airframe to become one of the premier
Unlimited Aircraft to race in competition at Reno, and possibly elsewhere when
progress and reliability make that a possibility. The initial goal was to race at
the National Championship Air Races in Reno in September 2007, to allow the team
time to build a safe, state of the art, dedicated Unlimited Air Racer, and have
time for a first-class development program. Availability of carbon fiber
materials has been a problem, setting the program back somewhat. However, that
issue is slowly being resolved as more material becomes available. No set date
will be forthcoming until we get further along in the project.
The aircraft will be constructed
with telemetry equipment, as well as electronic flight displays, with minimum
mechanical backup instruments. Murdo built the canopy for Precious Metal, (a
well known Unlimited Air Racer), and currently holds the molds to manufacture
more as required. The main landing gear is initially being planned to be out of
an Aerostar, or Beech, as was done successfully with two well known Racers from
the past, Tsunami and Miss Ashley II.
Murdo's enthusiasm is contagious and his
dedication to seeing this project through to a successful finish is second to
none. As I am writing this, Murdo
has built the skins for the horizontal stabilizer, rudder, and elevators. The
spars are virtually complete for the horizontal stab. Stay tuned for further
updates and team member profiles as we progress. Also check out the photo
gallery through the link below.
CONTACT MURDO at mustangmurdo@cs.com