Radial (Retro) Rocket With Hot Paint Now Flying - Oh Yeah!

Hot Radial Rocket taildragger recently test flown (photo: Airborne Kustomz) 

(4 pix) 

 First flight: February 19, 2011.

 If you've been paying attention at all to AirPigz lately you should know I'm a pretty huge fan of the Radial Rocket. This homebuilt kit airplane is an excellent blending of today's technology with the emotion-inspiring shapes from the golden age of aviation. As I've said before, anytime you bolt a 360 hp radial on the front of a small taildragger, you've got my attention!

 This recently completed Rocket owned by Pete Malone from Missouri has a paint scheme that matches the awesome retro shapes... this my friends is exactly what General Aviation is missing: Passion! The paint was done by Airborne Kustomz out of Texas and you can check out some videos of the process at the Airborne Kustomz Radial Rocket page. I hear there's a good chance the airplane will be at Oshkosh this year too. That makes me happy.

 

 You can see how tightly the Russian M-14P radial is cowled in this picture. The sorta Focke-Wulf Fw190 prop is another hot detail on this Rocket. And, as cool as the details are on this beast, the real point is what it must feel like from inside the cockpit! This thing is fast, climbs like a rocket, looks both mean and beautiful... and then there's that sound. Wow. This is living right here.

 

 Hopefully I'll fetch up some great pix of this Rocket in the air before long, but for now it's great to know that it's all done and flying. The early reports are saying cruise speed is well north of 200 mph with plenty of throttle yet to go, and climb rate over 4,000 feet per minute!

 The last three pix are from RadialRocket.com which of course is where you can go to get more details on this most spectacular homebuilt aircraft. You can also hit the tag below to see the other posts I've put up recently. And hey, if you're anything like me, you really oughtta wipe that drool off your chin : )