Jay: 2003 marks the 100th year since the Wright Brothers made their historic flight. To celebrate this milestone in flight, 3 teams were invited from around the world to participate in an event to recreate that moment. Fortunately for us, our good friend Chuck Slusarczyk was the judge for this occassion and he has graciously agreed to spend some time talking about Junkyard MegaWars Flight of the Century. Firstly, those duds. Chuck, you looked like you stepped out of the 1900s. Now, knowing that fabrics back then weren't exactly "breathable"...were you at all comfortable?

Chuck: Comfortable but hot when the sun came out.

J: Wool is not exactly the thing to be wearing in the California sun. Now, this was your first time working with Robert and Karyn...how did you folks get along?

C: We got along just great and I got along great with Tyler and Karyn as well. We had a lot of fun horsing around the 3 of us..Robert, Tyler and Karyn are "real" people not stuck up in the least. Robert was teaching me how to sound like those old grumbling British chaps always talking about the big war and their part in it.

I can't say enough about the entire JYW staff and crews, they were all a pleasure to work with and fun to be with .I'd go back and do another show in a minute if they ever call again. If not I certainly made a lot of neat friends. I am proud to say that I was in some way associated with the show...

J: You know, we always hear glowing words about the people at Junkyard/Scrapheap. I think that serves as some sort of testament to the general atmosphere of the show. We're all aware of "creative editing" in television. Since this was a complicated (and dangerous) challenge, how much was there really between the end of the build and the actual flying?

C: Actually I don't know, but first I probably should explain why. Originally I was to be on the American team but when I found out that the filming was to be during the same week of Oshkosh (a major Airshow that I attend ) I had to drop out from being on the team. Oshkosh is where I earn my living by selling my planes and making new sales contacts for the rest of the year so my attendance was manditory. I was called a few weeks later by Tristian and asked if I could be the Judge since I wouldn't have to be there the full week. So I made arrangements to have the guys from my shop go to Oshkosh with our trailer and set up our show display while I flew to Burbank CA. While the guys were setting up my booth at Oshkosh we were filming the build. At about 10:30 PM of the last build day I was wisked to the airport andflew back to Oshkosh on a red eye flight. I arrived in Oshkosh at 8:00AM on the day the show opened. I stayed at Oshkosh for 3 days and flew back on another red eye flight back to Burbank.

I was then taken to the Mojave area where the flying was to take place and got a look at the planes. I know that there was testing of the engines the day before but there was no flying or taxiing done at that time. Between arriving at the site and the actual flights was 2 days. One day to unload and assemble the planes and one day for testing and adjusting the engines. There was a small city assembled out there with a huge tent to house the planes and trailers for the cast and wardrobe, the caterer, just a huge amount of people and equipment. You would never know it when watching the show though.

J: I think we got a glimpse of one tent the planes were in. Last time I saw one of those was one of those outdoor churches. It was a massive looking structure. We saw a representative from the FAA on site inspecting the planes. Were there any concerns raised on his part that needed to be addressed?

C: Not really, they looked everything over very carefully and asked a lot of questions, but no more than they would do for any Experimental airplane. There was quite a bit of aviation talent on the set so any questions or concerns were handled by any one of us.

J: One of the blessings of this particular build I guess. I want to turn our attentions to the planes themselves. Let's start with the French plane. Was it pandemonium when their prop split apart?

C: There was at first because there were no spares. But a few of us looked at it and Ian from the British team came up with a solution we could all live with. String was also applied to the opposite blade and the prop was balanced after the repair. I would have flown it. It was a good safe fix.

J: That certainly says something when the judge says he'll fly it! Unfortunately for the Americans, their plane just couldn't get airborne until the actual flight. They seems to have many problems. Can you talk about the reasons their plane seems plagued?

C: There were 3 reasons, Incidence, CG and aeroelasticity. Incidence is the angle the wing is set at, I felt that the wing should have had about 3 degrees positive angle. That is the Leading edge or the front of the wing is higher than the trailing edge or rear of the wing.

CG which is short for Center of Gravity or the balance point. In this case the CG was to far forward and there was insufficient tail power to push the tail down and raise the nose. After some lead weight was added this condition improved and in addition to adjusting the incidence of the tail almost allowed for take off. However the wing kept twisting.

Aeroelasticity is the flexing or bending of the airframe usually the wings or tail. In this case the wings were twisting because of the low angle of incidence of the wing and not enough bracing on the top of the wing. When enough incidence is present the high pressure portion of the airstream is under the wing and the lower pressure portion is on top of the wing causing the wing to lift up. In this case the high pressure was on top of the wing and was pushing the tip of the wing down and twisting it and the faster he went the worse it got. Once the wing bracing was strengthened and the CG was moved and some incidence added to the tail the plane flew. There was no way to increase wing incidence since the wing was built solid to the structure so the next best thing was done by adding additional incidence to the tail.

J: Yes, the twisting was very obvious on their second test I believe. Bad luck. When did anyone think the Brits would take it?

C: It was never obvious to me until after the French flew. Until the French flew I thought they had a real chance to challenge the Brits. I thought that the French plane had just as good a chance to win when I saw it fly. However they had a reluctance to make any turns and had a damaged prop to also worry about. I think with more time the French entry could have been a real contender. However they took a more technical approach and ran out of time...

J: Other than the time factor, did the teams have any other challenges?

C: Just the usual challenges of finding parts when needed and waiting for glue and paint to dry.

J: One final question, and this might seem unfair...Did the best team/design win, in your opinion?

C: Boy that's a tough one, all 3 airplanes made history that day and really if it were up to me I'd say they all won. Because of the show I got to see a Walden 9 replica fly. Until then I only saw one photo of a Walden airborne. The Bleriot was a thing of beauty and a work of art and capable of more flying than it did. The Brits showed that even if the aileron was too long it could be fixed by cutting it down. I never saw them despair over any problem and they just trudged along and finished. I thought the Brits plane was a bit homely in appearance but it more than made up for it by flying like a bird...Each team should be proud of what they accomplished and they were all winners in my book and I was glad to be there watching history being made. For truly Aviation History was made that week.