Warbird Information Exchange

Hello gentlemen.

I'm curious to know if anyone has any information regarding the Cooney R-3 Forumla One racer. There's one listed for sale on barnstormers.com in an ad which has been up and down for the last several months. Based upon what I can deduce from several Google searches, it was designed by a man named Tom Cooney. The race number as it appears on the above example appears to be officially designated though there are no records that I could locate of that particular ship ever competing.

Any information you can provide will be appreciated.

According to Robert Hirsch's book, it was built in 1971, and crashed on the way to a race at Cape May.
NTSB shows 6/1/71 near Woodbine NJ
Hirsch has '78 as build date in his photo description, but I think that is an error.
Aircraft was rebuilt in 1978 or 1979 depending on sources.
According to Hirsch, Cooney passed away before he could race it.

Flip Miller was going to race it in 2002, but withdrew the airplane after he was unable to correct a rigging
problem. I haven't seen anything on it, since then, until the Barnstormers ad.

Note- Cooney also built and raced (on what looks like the same wing), the Cooney R-1 "Tom Cat",
which also crashed on a ferry flight.

Paul

That's some really great information. I wonder if the rigging problem is persistent. I also wonder if the rigging problem can be correlated to the airframe dimensions being slightly askew from the '71 crash. I've messaged the seller several times but haven't received a reply. According to Hirsch, did Cooney ever race the R-3 or was the Cape May race to be that airplane's first?

The reason that I'm interested in this particular airplane is that it's about the only reasonably-priced race plane I can find for sale. If anybody knows of any others out there, especially any with some provenance, I'd really appreciate the lead.

From what I read in Hirsch's book, and from what I can remember, (I started crewing IF1 & Bipes in 1980),
it doesn't appear to have raced at all.

Miller said the wings look and measure straight, but rolls hard left (knife edge), if you relax the stick.
His suspicion was the right wing was thicker from the repair(s).
If that is the wing off the R-1, (just my speculation), that also impacted a tree on the right wing.

That's about all I've got, Good Luck with the hunt.

Paul

Keep an eye out on Barnstormers. I have seen several Cassutts change hands on there for about the same price or less. At least you would be buying a proven design with great upgrade potential in the future. I'm trying to find a good Shoestring project which are a bit harder to locate.....

The Cooney R-3 "Tomcat II" was built in 1971 by Tom Cooney of Indianapolis. He was ferrying the racer to the Cape May, NJ event for its inaugural race when he ran out of fuel. The subsequent forced landing did considerable damage (see the 1972 Kinert annual for pictures). Cooney started to rebuild the aircraft, but took ill and did not complete it. The racer was eventually rebuilt in the late 1970's. Carroll Dietz acquired the plane and raced it at Cleveland, I believe in 1978 or 1979, which is the only time #91 ever competed. The rebuild left much to be desired and the plane was not competitive, but instability was not an issue at that time. Dietz sold the R-3 and moved on to race several other F-1's. The R-3 wound up in North Dakota where it was completely torn down and thoroughly rebuilt by Flip Miller to its present state.

Tom Cooney always ferried his racers to events a-la Steve Wittman. He ferried the R-1 "Tomcat" #71 from Indianapolis to Reno in the early days. I believe it was on a return flight from Reno that he had to make a forced landing, pretty much destroying the R-1. Although similar in design, I don't believe the wing from the R-1 was used on the R-3.

It seems as though the R-3 is still a bit of a basket case which would explain why it's still for sale. It would be really cool to see it go around the pylons at Reno though!

I too would love to locate a Shoestring, an Owl, or a Cosmic Wind. It seems as though there was a thread on here several years ago with photos of the #87 Owl "Pogo" languishing in a cluttered hangar. Has anyone been able to rescue it?