Just today, I've started working on my Formula One air racer project. It's a Shoestring racer, which is one of the more successful designs in the Formula One racing category. I'm told that this particular fuselage has never flown, but the wing and the tail section have a good bit of history on them. You see, they were originally on the Wagner Solution, which was flown by Judy Wagner. While flying the Wagner Solution, she was the first woman to win a Formula One race. Judy raced the Solution from 1971 until 1981, when she died in a plane crash (different plane).
The Wagner Solution was then purchased from the Wagner estate by Ray Cote and was renamed "JUDY." The airplane was modified heavily over the years, including the replacement of the original wing and tail surfaces with composite assemblies. It has gone through several owners over the years and "JUDY" still races today, retaining it's original race number 44.
Over the years, the wing and tail sections were separated from one another and became parts of different projects or personal collections. I was fortunate enough to purchase this airplane with the original wing and was further fortunate to find and purchase (just closed the deal yesterday) the tail section, which was unique in the fact that it's all aluminum. My intention is to honor the Wagner Solution by building a kinda-sorta-semi-clone of it and to take those original wings and tail around the pylons again, like I know they want to do. The name of my new airplane will be "Another Solution."
Sooooo, if y'all have any interest in this type of project, I'll be glad to post some fairly regular progress reports on how it goes, similar to how I've done with the B-24A updates. All I have to show you for now is the wing (sitting upside down) and a couple old pictures of what the Wagner Solution looked like back in 1977. That is also what Another Solution will hopefully look like ( but obviously with a different race number since number 44 is still in use). The rest of the airplane is in my hangar, waiting patiently for me to get the wing recovered.....
Gary
Kind of neat considering you don't just go up to the Home Depot and buy that stuff in bulk. Here's a picture of the aileron once it was removed.......
