Schmidtbauer spent four and a half years building his Mustang II.

He still speaks of it fondly even while zooming across a patchwork of farm fields in his Mustang II. He flew an American Aerolights Eagle ultralight for several years and loved it. Schmidtbauer is a former ultralight pilot who’s also sampled sailplane soaring. He wasn’t always such a streak in the sky. Any pilot might guess that while I pulled him away from a long day of harvesting crops, he enjoyed the chance to show off and fly his speedy airplane. Schmidtbauer is a resident of Anoka, Minnesota, where he owns a full-service car wash business. It’s the fastest I’ve ever flown in an aircraft of this size. On a beautiful Minnesota fall day last October, Schmidtbauer let me take the controls of his Mustang II as we hurtled along close to 250 mph. In fact, only his buddy and RV-4 pilot Dave Anders has beaten Schmidtbauer in a race, and they’re so close that the next race might be different. His homebuilt aircraft has beaten the likes of jet-smooth Lancairs and isn’t threatened by speedy RVs. The stunned expression stayed on my face as Schmidtbauer described detail after detail about the handling of cooling air.Īfter an hour-long flight in his blazing Mustang II, I came away a believer. We think the engine is also important and that more power is better than less.īut according to race winner Brian Schmidtbauer, up to 30% of the total drag in an aircraft can be cooling drag, or air movement through the engine compartment.īecause I often review gliders and slower powered aircraft, I’m sure I displayed a slack-jawed response to this comment. When most of us think about a fast airplane, we sketch in our minds a sleek and smooth exterior and wings that allow the graceful machine to slip through the air with the least possible resistance. Schmidtbauer estimates that he has put more than 2500 work hours into his Mustang.

Mus2 bushby mustang ii