Rare Bear 3km record, Las Vegas NM 1989

Edited video of Lyle Shelton setting the low-altitude propeller driven speed record in the F8F Bearcat "Rare Bear" in August, 1989 at Las Vegas, New Mexico. 528 mph. Posted with permission from the Lyle Shelton Estate.

[@jeffk464]

Its amazing 1940's planes don't look dated at all. But you look at the cars in the parking lot and they look ancient.

[@jestertoo]

Rarebear looks like a different beast from a stock F8

[@thewaltbrownellchannel9318]

Maybe the planes were divinely designed

[@bobdyer422]

Watched Lyle and "Rare Bear" at Reno in '89&'90, what a privilege.I'll never forget the sound, the speed, the race, the plane and the man. Thanks for posting

[@flyingcatsofthesalishsea.]

I was there in 89 too!

[@bristleconepinus2378]

@@flyingcatsofthesalishsea. me too, got Lyle's autograph, Hoover's too.

[@Lee-70ish]

Love all the Cats. We used to run a Tiger Cat here in the UK at Duxford . I believe it now lives in the USA. 2 huge engines and a pencil fuselage shes a beauty and climbs like a beast.

[@davidsadler7047]

The Tiger cat is a great looking plane, even better than a mossie or P38.

[@SeanHollingsworth]

This footage is such a rich time capsule!!!

[@garys-617]

Awesome - a piece of history ! Thanks for posting :-)

[@outofcomms]

I worked for Specialized Testing Service and Sandy Friezner at this time. Lyle, Sandy and Clay Lacer were very close friends. I instrumented the P3 “Paddle blades” a few years later at Van Nuys.

[@gaylepayne128]

[e-mail]

[@ralphgregory7616]

👍👍

[@warbirdfotos]

Thanks so much Brad! Been waiting for years to see this published!

[@MarkBrighton-nb8je]

I was there! I flew there in my friend's AT6 ,from Santa Fe ! 👍😊

[@patrickbryant8680]

I have seen Rare Bear fly in 3 different liveries. Always amazing.

[@LonMoer]

Nice piece, Brad. Thanks for posting this.

[@1958PonyBoy]

I was there in 1976 at Mojave when it crashed. I had never seen a plane crash before. Shelton was on a qualifying run and managed to bring it around to the landing strip after his oil pump failed, but his approach was way too steep and he hit the strip at an angle where his left landing gear took all the stress and collapsed. He slid down the length of the runway, shooting sparks and flame from underneath the aircraft. A spectacular show for the people sitting in the grandstands, to be sure. Too bad though. He was the only competition to the Red Baron, a heavily modified P-51 mustang with a huge motor and twin contra-rotating propellers. He ended up winning the race easily.

[@lulubellers]

I was there too with my family & saw that.

[@psims210]

The soundtrack is amazing

[@leefithian3704]

Rare bear was a sweet machine

[@BeechSportBill]

WHAT a SOUND!

[@davidmcpherson7451]

RIP Lyle!

[@1903A3shooter]

Saw a F-8 in the Navy air museum at Pensacola but they look much better in the air.

[@andrewscott3184]

I have a mint 78 Mojave air race poster framed on my wall. Family treasure.

[@concerned1313]

Wow, he goes as fast as a slow 38 round.

[@leefithian3704]

Man that’s still cool

[@bradmiller9507]

Thanks, I thought they forgot ... I been gone awhile.

[@johnparrish9215]

I would love to know the modifications done to the engine to increase reliability, after all she is not exactly stock horse power or RPM anymore.

[@rarebear7788]

She's still pretty unreliable lol

[@EncrypticMethods]

@@rarebear7788 Yeah, considering the fact that a lot of these modified war birds are still rocking ORIGINAL parts, not that reliable. 😏

[@thethirdman225]

I don't know that there was a lot of modification done. There was an excellent article about this in the British magazine 'AIR International' at the time. I remember it ran on special fuel and put out about 4,000 hp for this run. But I doubt anyone ever dyno tested it.

[@KowboyUSA]

Fastest bear on the planet.

[@Magravated]

I believe it was the only one in existence at one time.

[@tomburley]

Wow - I never realized that Las Vegas was once located in New Mexico!!!! - Always thought it was to be found in Nevada (NV)

[@black70bird]

There are two Las Vegas, one in NM and one in Nevada.

[@tomburley]

OK - thanks for the correction - a small city in NM is a strange place for Rare Bear to be setting speed records but thanks for pointing its existence out to me.

[@black70bird]

I did not know it existed until I drove through it.

[@marka8947]

@ 3:40.....Ray Cote on the right??

[@johnosbourn4312]

That's one fast cat!

[@ultimatejay]

What happened to this plane? Where is it now?

[@chrisfiore12]

Rod Lewis owns her now

[@glennmaidhof6061]

can a prop driven plain brake the speed of sound.

[@Red-rl1xx]

glenn maidhof No. As the rotational speed of the tips of the propeller approaches the speed of sound, there's a sharp fall in the propeller's efficiency, meaning it can't pull the plane through the air as well. Back in the '50's, the U.S. gov't made an effort to develop a supersonic propeller, but without success, in the XF-84 "Thunderscreech". The noise generated by the propeller actually made nearby ground crew nauseous.

[@P51]

yes, it can...unlikely it would stay together after doing so, though

[@johnosbourn4312]

glenn maidhof No, it can't, because of the aerodynamic limitations of the propeller.

[@jamesadams2336]

No a prop driven plane cannot break the speed of sound

[@jorgsobota2228]

Yes - if the pilot is bold, the plane is stable, sleek and the dive is long enough. However, the pilot won't live to tell about it because he won't be able to pull out of the dive without disintegrating the plane...

[@Nighthawk743]

Ahhh, Los Vegas is in NV not NM !!

[@paulmurphy42]

Reno is at ground level, but WW2 fighters like the Bearcat were designed to fly their fastest at about 30,000 feet, for dogfighting and to escort bombers. So what top speed would Rare Bear be able to reach at 30,000 feet, a/ if no adjustments were made to its current engine and b/ if it were adjusted to give its best at 30,000 feet?

[@kenclark9888]

Lockheed L-101?? L-1011 maybe

[@garypugh1153]

I fly a cessna 150. If power is on idle on approach and you give full throttle for go around will it flip over from torque ? Just wondering 😎

[@marka8947]

With 100 horsepower? No. You will be fine. Just keep on the right rudder....

[@mgn5667]

Love is in the Air,.. chuckle

[@sugey349]

nasty sound of rare bear early

[@UltraMonkeySapien]

Its a shame the Bear doesn't have that quad prop anymore. Its nowhere near as fast as it was then.

[@thethirdman225]

The three blader sounds better though...

[@pilot3016]

I believe the 3 blade prop had issues with balancing, too.

[@bradmiller9507]

The old guys club ... & Ski was skin in the Zeke Worked 4 gunnel & northrup scool @ night ...

[@robbeck5380]

Talks to much can’t hear the plane

[@einherz]

lol

[@MegaBoilermaker]

I will hazard a guess and say that this may once have been a Grumman "Bearcat" as the commentary tells us sod all !!

[@garypeatling7927]

Rev to hard engine stands still and plane spins

[@mgn5667]

ive heard the hellcat had a stout body and it did because it was originally designed as a Bi winged plane !,, but ended up as a single wing with its stout body...

[@richardlux2477]

You are mistaking the F6F Hellcat with its forerunner, the F4F Wildcat. The Wildcats forerunner was a biplane, the F3F.

[@mgn5667]

@Richard Lux i dont think so.. the bodies were built 4 bi wings and used otherwise they kept it because the mighty strength,, and, they needed it the plane had more wing surface area than any U.S Single engined Fighter , even more than the jug

[@taproom113]

@@mgn5667 Richard Lux is correct. The F-6F Hellcat was a mono-wing design from the get-go. Check Grumman history before you post about it again.

[@mgn5667]

@@taproom113 hey wait a minute:: this plane came from a bi wing engineering from another plane thats why it is so stout ! they kept the body engineering and changed to mono wings ..dont tell me..

[@jorgsobota2228]

@@mgn5667 What are you making up here? The F8F went into Service in 1945 and was one of the pinnacles of late prop fighters, the last Grumman Biplanes were built in 1937. As far as Aircraft engineering goes some decades before. It had nothing to do with his ancestors and the barrel-shape was, as with every plane with these engines, a logic form to integrate the engine into the body. With your logic the Sea Fury has a barrel shape because the Hawker Fury from 1936 was a Biplane (with an inline engine btw...)... Go and read something about the history of these planes, the sources are plenty if you WANT to read them and gain knowledge. If not, of course, stay withyour BS...

[@coopahj2]

it looks like a FW-190 or sea fury.

[@einherz]

looks like junior cousin of fw-190 :)

[@bobengen7282]

...

[@airmaster7655]

P

[@garyseeseverything8615]

A fw190 with higher octanes good job guys this tech goes back to 1939

[@toadamine]

Lame name...

[@toadamine]

@@TexasCountryGold ullet