Well, memory serves but only partly. With input from a couple of guys who also witnessed this event at SULA (thank you all for the corrections and the memories), the Mirage with carbon spar caps was NOT Don Edberg's. Apologies to Don (who has written and flown great stuff over the years). I'll leave the corrected name out for reasons of liability!
However, it was a pretty spectacular event! That said, the Mirage is one of the neater ideas that came along in that era. Blaine did a great job with the basic concept and added a number of innovative ideas to enhance the overall design. At the time (my opinion only) there were three developing approaches to thermal soaring. One of them was traditional - the Paragon, Oly IIs, Windrifter, etc ultimately leading up to the Sailaire. Big floaters with lots of area and high lift (Clark-Y ish) airfoils. The other was the concept Blaine was developing - light wing loading, not very high aspect ratio, and a lower camber section that could float and cruise nicely. The third was Hi Johnson's - very high aspect ratio and wing loading with high camber airfoils to carry the loads. All worked in their own way. Interesting to observe that all of these were displaced by composite ships a few years later. Technology does make a difference and can alter the landscape very quickly. Nice to see some of these designs coming back. They were neat ships that worked well. Apologies again to Don. But if you've gotta crash, please do it in a spectacular manner. I do my best sometimes but, other than looping my Albatross around the left wing on the power lines at Pasadena a long time back, nothing particularly memorable of late. Jeff N's 'extreme verticality' landing at the NATS a few years ago was certainly notable. Merry Christmas to all. - Dave R RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
