It's All About Speed
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Roush stands on the wing of his "D" model P-51 Mustang. A freshly overhauled Merlin had recently been installed.
The big cast parts such as the cylinder heads and engine block are the economically irreplaceable parts of the Merlin because the cost to create the tools to make new castings is so high. That's why Roush spends a great deal of effort trying to convince pilots to preserve Merlin engines, or at least not fly them to the point of destruction, so that the core of the engine can be rebuilt and fly on almost indefinitely.
Roush also builds engines for the four-wheel Mustang in partnership with Ford. Over the years he has created hopped up versions of the Ford pony car with the most recent being the Roush P-51 featuring a 510 hp V-8 under. In addition to the engine, Roush has modified almost everything else from a stock Mustang including the performance components, and the exterior with new panels front, rear and sides. Only a few hundred are built and then sold through cooperating Ford dealers. The P-51 Mustang car is street legal in every respect, carries a typical warranty and is supported by Roush and Ford, but is as close to a track-ready car as you can drive down the road.
To see more of Jack's unique flying and racing life he invited me along on a typical day. A typical Tuesday, to be exact. Roush uses his Premier to fly home after the weekend NASCAR race, wherever it may be, and then spends Monday looking after the Roush Industries operation in Detroit. One of the latest projects there is a propane-powered conversion aimed at trucks and other fleet vehicles. Though propane has about 17 percent less energy potential per gallon than gasoline, very favorable federal tax credits aimed at reducing greenhouse gases actually makes the cost of operating propane-fueled vehicles much less than for gasoline. We drove around town in a propane converted Ford pickup and there was no difference from the gasoline version except at startup, where it takes a couple seconds after you turn the key for the engine control computer to finish its checks and start the engine.
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In the Mustang's cockpit are a mix of World War II vintage instruments and controls, plus enough modern instruments and avionics to make IFR flight routine. An SNJ and Piper J-3 Cub share space with the Mustang and Premier in Jack's hangar on Willow Run Airport.
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Tuesdays are devoted to the Roush Fenway Racing operation at Concord, North Carolina, which is just northeast of Charlotte. Twelve-hour days appear to be the norm for Roush, and he thinks nothing of putting in 16 hours, and during the long NASCAR season he goes seven days a week. So it was 6 a.m. at the Roush hangar at Willow Run Airport west of Detroit when Jack hit the button to raise the hangar door. He hooks up the tow bar himself, drives the tug to pull the Premier out of his hangar, drives the tug back in, closes the door, pats his Mustang and T-6 on the cowling and heads out for another day of airplanes and cars.
Instead of the usual direct flight to Concord today's mission included a stop at Madisonville, Kentucky, to drop off a couple of Roush people to conduct testing on a drag racer. It was cold and windy in Detroit with a ceiling of 900 feet. With 3,000 pounds of fuel, three passengers plus me observing from the right seat, the Premier weighed 12,190 pounds for takeoff, which is 310 pounds below its limit.
The Premier has a rather small swept wing designed for high cruise speed so its runway speeds are a little higher than on other light jets. The flaps are huge, and very effective, which helps to make up for the small wing area. At our weight and with the cold air temperatures V1 decision speed was 105 knots, rotation at 111, and best angle of climb speed should one engine fail (V2) was 124 knots.
I was immediately impressed with Roush's piloting technique because he is so methodical and decisive as his hands moved around the cockpit making pre-takeoff checks. I have found that the best pilots are those who have sound habits and don't deviate from them. Jack and his team are willing to push the envelope into every corner on a race track, but when he is in an airplane, any airplane, he operates entirely by the book.
Jack tells me he has always been aware of the keen difference between the risks of driving and flying, but even more so after he nearly died in an airplane crash in 2002. A friend had an AirCam, a twin-engine amateur-built experimental airplane that has a high wing with the engines mounted in pusher configuration. The tandem fuselage is open and slung below the wing and engines. Roush failed to see a high-tension power line not far from the airport and he hit the wire. His last memory, before waking up in the ambulance, was seeing the wire approaching at the last second and trying to duck out of the way.
The impact with the wire flipped the AirCam in a nose-down plunge into a pond below and Roush was pinned under water for several minutes. A witness rushed to his rescue but he was underwater for at least six minutes by best estimate. The only available explanation for why he didn't drown is that being unconscious when he hit the water retarded his breathing instinct and prevented him from sucking in water. It was either that, or divine intervention, or maybe both. His leg was badly busted up in the crash but despite all odds he recovered essentially full use of all the damaged parts.
As we climbed out Roush let the Premier accelerate to 250 knots, a good combination of forward speed that gets you down range, fits into traffic and still yields a good rate. In just 18 minutes we were at FL 380 where the air temperature was seven degrees above standard. The Premier accelerated to Mach .75 for a true airspeed of 435 knots. Fuel flow was 980 pounds per hour total. That speed makes the successful racer in Roush just sit there and smile.
We were vectored for the GPS approach at Madisonville where the ceiling was also about 900 feet, but the wind was gusting directly across the runway. Roush flew the approach perfectly and made a great landing despite the crosswind. We added fuel back up to near the 3,000-pound level and were soon climbing out headed for Concord. This time the controllers held us at a final cruise altitude of FL 350 and we reached it in 17 minutes despite two level offs on the way up. At that level the Premier accelerated quickly to Mach .79, which is 457 knots true. That brought an even bigger grin.
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