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RAT 1958 to 1970
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When the manufacturers came out with the first .40 engines the .35/.36 engines went away. The one exception to this was the Johnson 35/36 series. As time progressed the engines became more complex. The plain bearing engines got ball bearings. Lapped pistons now had rings. The engine line that in my mind started the trend was the K&B 61 series created by Bill Wisnewski of speed engine fame. Bill never flew in rat but he was a ready source of information on engines and fuel for those who did. The K&B 61 Series represented a basic change from the use of a simple general purpose engine to one that was specialized. I can still remember the adds that stated that the "Super Wiz 35 was perfect for stunt, speed and sport". To me the "61 Series" changed all that. The Fox Combat engines and maybe the Super Tigre all were part of this change but it seemed like the K&B was the one that reflected the greatest change from its former self. The new engine would not run on suction fuel feed, it was a much larger and significantly heavier, and could be purchased as a front or rear induction. Then perhaps the biggest improvement in "usability" came when the piston changed to the "Dykes" ring system on the .40 displacement engines. Changes like this were showing up in all of the competitive engines. The fuels used also changed with the event requirements. In Hour Rat most used 5% to 10% nitromethane, with the occasional competitor running up to 25%. When AMA Rat came into vogue the 35 lap heats justified 55 to 65% nitro because you didn't have to worry about pit stops and burnt out glow plugs. The 70 lap heat and 140 lap main events normally saw 25% . It ran consistently and glow plugs generally lasted at least 4 tanks. Johnson engines always ran less nitro than the others but performed equally. The evolution of the "rat racer" plane was consistent with most other model events. When rat first began there was great variety of design. As mentioned earlier we saw combat ships, Ringmaster type sport/stunt planes as well as the original designs that optimized some feature. The original designs tended to be small, in an effort to make them "fast". These generally did not handle well and were very erratic coming off the ground or did not handle well in traffic with three other planes. Also when the engine quit they fell like a stone causing the pit crews to scramble to retrieve them. The poor handling of these ships really represented a safety problem especially when they would "torque in" at takeoff. For some reason there were very few kits on the market for this popular event. The couple that come to mind are: Veco Fire Bird- not strong enough and had very poor take off characteristics due to its size and configuration. The "Guillows Rat", this was really a small trainer type plane that was simple but not really up to the speeds necessary for competition. The Goldberg "Skat Rat" was a good kit and had all the characteristics of a winner, except it to was not up to the very high, 130 to 140 mph, speeds at the end of Rat racing popularity. This kit was the first one that showed the use of a fuel shut-off as a 'tactical' advantage. The kit that had most of the characteristics of a good rat was the Harter Regal Raider proto spend ship. The long aluminum pan was in itself a basic building block for most rat designs. The wing area was larger than most 'Eastern Style' ships but somewhat smaller than our more successful West Coast designs; (125 square inch vs. 140 to 150 square inches.). The upright engine and forward location of the landing gear were the trademarks of the standard 'Eastern' design. The general configuration of a successful "west coast" design was: large wing (140 square inch minimum), large percentage stabilizer and elevator, a rearward landing gear location, inverted engine, fuel shut-off. The "Eastern" design as we maw it was characterized by: small wing (less than square inches) stabilizer, and control surfaces, forward leading gear position, and upright engine. One Memorial Day weekend our club, the Valley Circle Burners, ran a "500 lap" race against other clubs across the country. Pete Soule, then the Round-N-Round columnist for Model Airplane News, reported on the event. Both BNST an the West Coast and John Kilsdonk from the Detroit Michigan area had nearly identical times (within a few seconds) after 500 laps. The point of interest was that the hardware used was so different: BNST: K&B 40 FR, inverted, cowled in engine, 36 inch span, 150 square inch area wing, rearward-positioned landing gear spring-loaded a'la R/C nose gears, fuel shut-off, hot glove, fast-fill fuel system. J. Kilsdonk: Super Tigre 40 RV, upright engine with rear fairing, smaller wing (estimated as 115 square inches) and forward landing gear position. I don't know if they used a hot glove or fast-fill fuel system. Anyway, John made, 3 pit stops and BNST made 9. The end result at 500 laps was a tie! This result I think shows the main difference between rat racing as it was run in the Southern California area and the rest of the country. We placed a great deal of effort in perfecting overall performance, pit stops, and fast very controllable airplanes. The rest Of the country seemed to look at air speed as the "end-all" performance factor. |
Dick Brace (tall/glasses), Dany Jones (back to camera and towing away), and Mr. Unknown in a 3-up final
 Dick Brace (tall/glasses), Henning Olsen (blonde - Dooling 29!!), and Netzeband fly it out with #4 pilot dropping out of race.  |
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End of The Era | ||
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