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Sorceress
Role Racing biplane
National origin United States
Designer Lee and Seldon Mahoney
Introduction 1970
Retired 1983
Status Preserved at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Number built 1

The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress is a racing staggerwing biplane originally designed by the father and son team of Lee and Seldon Mahoney with later improvements accomplished by pilot Don Beck.[1]

The aircraft is notable as being the first biplane to exceed 200 mph (320 km/h) on a race pylon course and also held the distinction of being the most successful racing biplane in history,[2][3] until Tom Aberle's Phantom, which has won eight Reno Gold championships since its introduction in 2004.[4] It was donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum after its last race, where it is currently housed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.[3]

Design

A reverse-stagger biplane, Sorceress represents the state of the art at the time of its design and remains one of the great design classics of air-racing within the United States.[citation needed]

Lee Mahoney, the designer, had experience in airframe construction with composite materials, metal-to-composite bonding technologies, and computational fluid dynamics, applying his experience to design Sorceress, and achieve success with several noteworthy design features, including:

Controversy

Sorceress was designed within the rules of the ARPA Biplane class of 1965 and conformed to them without deviation, however, by 1972 competitors lobbied successfully to have Sorceress banned from competition.

Items of contention included:

Lee Mahoney took a lot of these criticisms, rule changes and comments personally, speaking about his experiences in an interview with 'Air Progress' magazine:[citation needed]

Not withstanding the negative early experiences, Sorceress retains her claim to being the most technologically advanced biplane of any sort ever constructed, and her racing history subsequent to the controversy has gone on to prove the faith and skill of her designer, backers, and pilots.

Results and records

Sorceress placed in the following Reno Air Races, racing as #89:[5]

Sorceress set a number of speed records in the Sport Biplane Class, including:[2]

Specifications

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1971–72[6]

General characteristics

Performance

References

  1. ^ Garber Center information
  2. ^ a b Records page from Society of Air Racing Historians Archived 2006-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b Image and information from Airliners.net
  4. ^ "2012 Biplane Results". Archived from the original on 2013-01-31. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
  5. ^ Race results from the Reno Air Racing Association Archived 2006-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Taylor 1971, p. 345.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beck-Mahoney Sorceress.
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