The Beck-Mahoney Sorceress was a racing staggerwing biplane originally designed by the father and son team of Lee and Seldon Mahoney with later improvements accomplished by pilot Don Beck. The aircraft is notable as being the first biplane to exceed on a race pylon course and also held the distinction of being the most successful racing biplane in history, until Tom Aberle's Phantom, which has won eight Reno Gold championships since its introduction in 2004. It was donated to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum after its last race, where it is currently housed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.
Design
A reverse-stagger biplane, Sorceress represents the state of the art at the time of its design, and remains one of the great design classics of air-racing within the United States. Lee Mahoney, the designer, had experience in airframe construction with composite materials, metal-to-composite bonding technologies, and computational fluid dynamics, applying his experience to design Sorceress, and achieve success with several noteworthy design features, including:-
Use of engine exhaust air flow forms a Coandă effect-bonded laminar flow over the fuselage, increasing rudder efficiency by several orders of magnitude. Mahoney had originally designed the fuselage so that a fin would not be necessary - the fuselage would have ended with a rudder, but his partners however preferred a more conventional treatment, giving Sorceress one of the smallest conventional fins of any racing biplane to date.
The aerofoil sections of the wings are designed as mirror image 'vanes' of symmetrical section - they interfere with each other's flow in a manner which provides very high efficiency in turns, where as one vane-set/wing begins to lose efficiency, the other gains more, allowing for extremely high lift in turns with minimal loss of velocity
Sorceress gains a great deal from composite bonding, with one of the first airframes to demonstrate almost perfect streamlining combined with very great strength;the wing interplane struts are for show only, Sorceress being capable of flight without them, but racing rules require them.
Controversy
Sorceress was designed within the rules of the ARPA Biplane class of 1965 and conformed to them without deviation, however, by 1972 competitors lobbied successfully to have Sorceress banned from competition. Items of contention included:
The original configuration used a limited model of the Teledyne Continental O-360, a commonplace engine, but oil sump configuration and the use of electronic ignition failed scrutiny checks.
The original undercarriage suffered collapse on several occasions and the Sorceress team were instructed to improve the undercarriage with stronger struts and larger wheels.
The wing area of the original wings was deemed excessive and had to be reduced. The lower wing outboard of the interplane struts was removed and swash-plates fitted to the tips.
Lee Mahoney took a lot of these criticisms, rule changes and comments personally, speaking about his experiences in an interview with 'Air Progress' magazine.
Notwithstanding the negative early experiences, Sorceress retains her claim to being the most technologically advanced biplane of any sort ever constructed, and her racing history subsequent to the controversy has gone on to proved the faith and skill of her designer, backers, and pilots.
Results and records
Sorceress placed in the following Reno Air Races, racing as #89:
1970: Biplane Consolation, 7th place,, pilot: Lee Mahoney.
1971: Biplane Gold, 2nd place,, pilot: Paul Deschamps
1972: Biplane Gold, 1st place,, pilot: Don Beck
1973: Biplane Gold, 2nd place,, pilot: Don Beck
1974: Biplane Gold, 2nd place,, pilot: Don Beck
1975: Biplane Gold, 1st place,, pilot: Don Beck
1976: Biplane Gold, 1st place,, pilot: Don Beck
1980: Biplane Gold, 8th place,, pilot: Don Beck
1982: Biplane Gold, 3rd place,, pilot: Don Beck
1983: Biplane Gold, 2nd place,, pilot: Don Beck
Sorceress set a number of speed records in the Sport Biplane Class, including:
190.48 mph, qualifying heat record, 1970 Reno Air Races
189.723 mph, championship race record, 1972 Reno Air Races
202.153 mph, championship race record, 1976 Reno Air Races
