Flight, March 1935

FOR LONG-DISTANCE RACING
"Benny" Howard's Monoplane: Fuel of Three Octane Values Carried

   MR. "BENNY” HOWARD, whose famous racers Ike and Mike are familiar to thousands of visitors to the National Air Races at Cleveland, Ohio, has designed a most interesting long-distance racing monoplane which he has called Mr. Mulligan. The machine is a high-wing strut-braced monoplane with a Pratt and Whitney "Wasp" SE engine of 500 h.p. giving a top speed at 17,000 feet of 312 m.p.h.
   Wood is used for the wings, which have plywood covering and internal bracing. The fuselage is of tubular construction with fabric covering, and the undercarriage is of very clean design, having no axle but being braced with wires. Control surfaces are large and unbalanced.
   A carefully designed N.A.C.A. cowling is fitted over the "Wasp" SE engine, which has a 14:1 supercharger drive ratio, 6:1 compression ratio, and is rated at 500 h.p. (2,200 r.p.m., 11,000 feet). One hundred gallons of fuel are carried in the fuselage, 50 gallons in the centre section and 25 gallons in each wing. The fuel in the fuselage tank is of 80 octane, that in the centre section of 87 octane, and the wing tanks contain 100-octane fuel. The idea behind this arrangement is that high octane fuel should be used for take-off, climb and emergency, and that the cheaper fuel should be used for cruising, especially at high altitudes.
   It is said that the machine, when fully loaded, takes off in less than 670 feet and climbs to 15,000 feet in fifteen minutes, using 62 1/2 per cent, full power. The initial rate of climb is 4,000 feet per minute, due, no doubt, to the special fuel.