Just repeating what T2X said. Why don't you ask him?
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Speaking of Gulf Wind & Skyway, here are the wooden Wings at Lake X, next to the motel, with Mr. K car in the photo too.
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Here is one of the early Wings. The article has 1963 photos of Dave Craig.
In the Lake X performance chart (it is hard to read) it looks like a Wing was timed at 96 mph with a fuel load of 30 gallons. I cannot read the recorded date.
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In the early 1960's Odell Lewis and Roy Ridgell ran a pair of fiberglass Switzer Wings in the Gold Coast Marathon - Miami to West Palm Beach and back the next day.
Odell in Wing 804 was 4th overall.
Roy in Wing 802 came in 5th overall.
It seems prior to the Tunnel hulls, the Outboard powered Wings had the inboard competitors start to take notice. Clamp on power is increasing their speed.
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Have no idea of how it happened but i tore all the shoulder muscles in my right shoulder AGAIN. ARM Hangs down like a broken fiddle string . Put paid to any workshop activities for a day or two. Dont mind if i do it of my own violation — but bugger these PHANTOM ailments- just can ‚t be doing with them§.
Fuji - You pride yourself on being the "Historic Photo Master". Post a video here of a wing from the from the late 1960's - early 1970's era flying continuously with only the lower units in the water. I followed wings for years back in the late 60's and early 70's and never saw one do anything more than a long lope. Their aerodynamic design was way ahead of the time, but their weight and the lack of available horsepower at that time kept them from continuous flight. Perhaps Rich Luhrs or Gene Lanham will be able to add more information.
Willabee, who was as involved with wings as anyone said this about the picture:
BEFORE 1962 BIGGEST OUTBOARD WAS MC CULLOCHS 75. MERC 800 [80HP]] AND THE RUDE 75.
whatever boat you put them on [even in pairs and triples ] was never going to be a match for a hot yank V8. Tunnels did not arrive in europe before 1964 [24 hours in Evian in August and Paris in October.]. Tunnel principle required lots of horsepower before advanced design and technology started to increase speeds.
Early days — 16 foot Levi and 18 ft molinari were very evenly matched until heading into the wind . Vee bottoms and what was left of the flatties did their wild dance when any sort of breeze started to blow ———- thats when the tunnels just picked up their skirts and ran.
First time i actually saw the wings was november 1969 at Havasu with DON ROSS . They had a kind of LOLOPE . Thought they definitely handled the slop better than the single molinari . But not that much quicker . By the spring of 1970 mercury the whole mercury team was running 17 foot Molinari‘s. Engines were shoving out decent Hp. But more important—- every new motor had more poke than the previous one. Richie Powers had done me and Don a very quick motor indeed. Won everything in Europe —— was quicker than Molinari . I just had the feeling we had Paris. In the bag. Don blew over in Amsterdam while leading the race . Powers that be decided Renato and i would team up. Boat we had was a stretched 17 footer. Armchair ride — but not that quick. So i persuaded GG to let PRUETT run my boat ——-was running third after two hours before he threw a blade on my best ROLLA prop.
Sorry Jackie:
There was was one thing I forgot to tell you when you reached the mature age of 90--
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I had heard that one of the wood Switzer Wings ran 128 one way at the Lake. I am pretty sure if that is true it is fast enough to keep it flying in ground effect.