Let’s go to the air races!

You know how it is when you open your P.O. Box; inside are things you just don’t want to drag out — bills, junk mail and stuff you really don’t need. Yesterday, however, I spotted a return address as I was pulling mail out of my box that always brings on a big smile and a sense of anticipation: the logo of the Reno Championship Air Racing Association (RARA).

If your life is as busy as mine, there are some things that I just have to schedule way ahead of time to make sure they don’t get missed. With that in mind, I opened the mail from RARA, and as soon as I saw the dates of September 14-18, I wrote on my calendar, “RENO RACES” in caps.

If you want to have the time of your life participating in the fastest sport in the world, do the same.

Air racing, to me, is akin to walking on the moon. The same challenges of human spirit, adventure, and know-how that drive air racing feed NASA. In fact, the roots of all space-age achievements go back to the early fabric and wood days of flying. From the moment the Wright brothers made the transition from glider to powered flight eveyone wanted to go faster and higher. It has not changed; Burt Rutan’s remarkable round-the-world GlobalFlyer and 60-year-old pilot, Steve Fossett are examples.

You will see many types of retired military aircraft racing at Reno, gleaming in the bright Nevada sunlight. The really tweaked racers roar around the pylons at over 400 miles an hour, speeds the designers and builders never dreamed they would achieve — especially 50 years from when they were built.

In the early days of airshows, the biggest attractions were the air racers, for good reason. They could outperform the best military aviation had to offer.

Moreover, don’t think for a moment that military engineers looking for ideas to make their airplanes go faster missed that reality.

When Howard Hughes designed, built and flew his Hughes R-1 air racer in the 1930s and shattered speed records, Japanese aeronautical engineers put a lot of Hughes’ racer into the Mitsubishi Zero that was used against us in World War II.

Established in 1947 as an alternative to the (even then) outrageously expensive Unlimited Class, Formula One racers have been evolving for almost 50 years. Today, the top racers use NASA technology to reach speeds approaching 300 mph — on the same engine that powers a Cessna 150 that can barely make it to 100 mph!

The rules are simple: All racers must be powered by a 200 cubic inch Continental engine. The racers must have a minimum of 66 square feet of wing, weigh at least 500 pounds empty, and have fixed landing gear and a fixed pitch propeller.

Formula 1 racers routinely post lap speeds around a three-mile oval in excess of 240 mph, and have been clocked on the straightaways at well over 260 mph — while flying 35 feet off the ground! Yet, the cost to compete in a world class racing machine is far less than any other sport.

To say that the races are “highly competitive” is a major understatement.

When the winner gets the checkered flag the difference between first and third is often less than one mph.

In addition to the Formula 1 racers at Reno, there are Biplane Racers, Sport Aircraft — the same airplanes that are flown by families to Grandma’s house — Jets, and the biggest and fastest of them all, the Unlimited Class.

Don’t miss it!