What a huge and expensive effort to get this plane back on its feet and returned to its country of origin! A true labor of love and so well documented! Roy's plane can now take its place beside "Old Blue" as an iconic KR. Let's hope it winds up in a museum, unlike Ol' Blue.
John's use of the past tense in writing "He lived in Santa Maria, CA . . ." tells me Roy is no longer around. When I visited Paul Lipps in 2010, Paul said Roy was still showing up at the local EAA meetings and wandering the hangars at SMX. If he was 76 in the Kitplanes article then 2010 would have made him 90 at the time of my visit, or 99 years old today. Not impossible, but since John used the words "lived in" it must mean he has passed away. I couldn't find an obituary. This plane is really of historical value more than anything else. First to use the new airfoil I believe. Longer fuselage, reducing elevator sensitivity. These are minor improvements compared to the advanced features of Mark Langford's enhancements. Keeping the standard cockpit width, 133RM is still just a comfortable one-place aircraft that can carry someone else in a pinch. No removable front deck. With John's legs sticking skyward as he tended to the brake reservoirs, this is a feature I'm sure he regrets not having. No baggage area behind the seat. These deficiencies are easily correctable I think. With that turbocharger this plane is a good candidate to duplicate the flights of Jim Evans with his turboed KR-1. Jim, another WWII fighter pilot, was based in Northern California and had his KR-1 up to 22,000 feet "and I could have gone higher". A home-brew oxygen set-up would make Marsh's plane a real travelling machine. Jim is covered in the articles from the March, 1993 Kitplanes issue below. He used to fly non-stop from Lewiston, CA to Oshkosh if I recall correctly. I talked to him on the phone years ago regarding his use of the Maloof propeller, proprietary to Revmaster. I had an upgraded version of that prop on my first KR with it's 2100D engine. http://jeffsplanes.com/KR/Mar%2093%20Kitplanes%20KR1%20Builders%20Article %20300dpi.pdf Anyway . . . what a magnificent effort on John's part to restore an iconic airplane. With all the effort and money expended, John could have bought (with another 25K or so) a Glasair 1 TD, a true two-place that looking from any distance at all, looks just like a KR-2. https://sky4buy.com/Glasair-1-TD-S-N-459-171810324692/02591 Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Your City, Your State Drivers Fuming over New Rule drivefinance.org http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5d86952f66f50152f7925st04vuc _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to [email protected]
