Formula F48 Air Racing: Hawker Fury(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50528705098_4130296d54_b.jpg)
After the 1944 armistice the aircraft producers of the world had to scale down production of combat aircraft rapidly as almost all production contracts were cancelled. Besides the aircraft already in production there were also a lot of advanced prototypes meant for the next generation of fighters and bombers. All development projects were cancelled overnight.
The downscaling of all air forces flooded the market with second-hand warplanes, some of them barely used, enabling people to buy an aircraft for next to nothing. At the same time a lot of combat pilots lost their job and to find a new source of income.
Some of these pilots started buying the surplus aircraft in 1945 and organizing air races with them. This quickly became a very popular pastime drawing large spectator crowds. In 1946 the first World Pilots Championship was held consisting of 6 races which were held in different locations in the USA, Europe and Asia. This first championship was won by US pilot John Warner flying a P-51D Mustang.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50528705243_b413d56ecc_b.jpg)
Very quickly this World Pilots Championship became so popular that sponsors and aircraft manufacturers became involved. Some of the wartime prototypes and development projects were revived to compete in the races. I order to maintain a level playing field the organizers decided to freeze the technology that could be used in the races at the level of the 1st of January 1948.
The World Pilots Championship was renamed to the Formula F48 and formal rules were set up. The main rule was that aircraft had to be powered by one or more piston engine and propeller driven. Ant design, materials and engines used should be as available at the beginning of 1948.
Races were held around a 10-mile closed circuit. Spectators were positions on the outside of the circuit. Since 1955 a season consists of 12 races in 10 different countries. A maximum of 15 aircraft were allowed in each race, a qualifying event before each race deciding which aircraft could take part. In 1960 there were participants from 15 countries flying aircraft from the USA, UK, Italy, Germany, France, Japan and Sweden.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50528705348_18eefc1cf7_b.jpg)
The Formula F48 races became very popular and major sponsors spent a lot of money to get their name on the aircraft. Although the rules specified that the engines used were the ones available before 1948, careful tuning managed to bring them to ever increasing output levels.
Below are the ten highest scoring aircraft in the 1980 season.| Race Number | Aircraft | Engine | HP | Max Speed |
| 3 | Messerschmitt Me-109X (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48523.msg901535#msg901535) | BMW 801E | 2250 | 780 kph |
| 5 | Hawker Fury (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48493.msg900864#msg900864) | Bristol Centaurus | 2500 | 820 kph |
| 7 | | | | |
| 8 | Focke Wulf Ta-152 (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48522.msg901532#msg901532) | Junkers Jumo 213E | 2400 | 810 kph |
| 13 | Kyushu J7W Shinden (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48509.msg901307#msg901307) | Mitsubishi Ha-43 | 2500 | 800 kph |
| 20 | Messerschmitt Me-509 (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48495.msg900913#msg900913) | Daimler Benz DB603 | 2500 | 810 kph |
| 31 | Supermarine Spiteful (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48494.msg900912#msg900912) | Rolls-Royce Griffon | 2400 | 830 kph |
| 44 | Fiat G-56 (https://www.whatifmodellers.com/index.php?topic=48492.msg900863#msg900863) | Daimler Benz DB603N | 2500 | 800 kph |
| 46 | | | | |
| 362 | | | | |
TomZ
That's very striking in that paint job Tom, nice :thumbsup:
:thumbsup:
Defo looks great in that colour and markings scheme ! Looks fast ! Fast Five !
:thumbsup:
Good match of airplane and trade mark (for massive power) ;D
:thumbsup:
That's looking very convincing. :thumbsup:
I'm expecting to see a black Me-262 as a German entrant. ;D
Another stunner :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
I can almost hear the music of that Bristol Centaurus! :thumbsup:
Tom, this is the best stuff you have done in ages. I look forward to more.
Loving the racers, nice work! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Nice one! :thumbsup:
I wonder if you can get older sponsorship decals going back to 50's/60's car racing?
There's no end of 1/24 NASCAR sheets available. All American sponsors though.
I suspect sheets for European rally cars are also available.
I wonder what you could get in the way of company logos that aren't specifically linked to racing in the real world? Racing planes sponsored by aircraft companies, engine companies, oil companies etc... Airline sponsorships is another possibility where you can certainly get logos.
BV-141 sponsored by Bovril? :wacko:
Years ago I did some work on adapting Robinson's Brewery artwork for a Tomcat warbird, since their best-known product is a beer called Old Tom.
Quote from: Weaver on November 09, 2020, 03:03:36 PM
I wonder if you can get older sponsorship decals going back to 50's/60's car racing?
They tended to be much smaller than more modern ones, just the company's logo usually.
This pic shows my slotracing AHC Daytona Cobra that I recently rebuilt from its 1965 originality. All the sponsor decals are just that, but I had to download some artwork of the logos and then print them as they're just not available in 1/32 scale these days.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/9174/pRZPfC.jpg)