Darryl George Greenamyer (August 13, 1936 – October 4, 2018) was an American

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. He started his flying career in the US Air Force Reserve. After leaving the Air Force, he then began to work at Lockheed where he eventually became an

SR-71 The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a Range (aeronautics), long-range, high-altitude, Mach number, Mach 3+ military strategy, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporati ...

test pilot at

Skunk works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...

. While working at Lockheed he met many of the engineers who would later help him make modifications to future race planes. He won his first victory in the Unlimited Class at the

Reno Air Races The Reno Air Races, officially known as the STIHL National Championship Air Races from 2016, is a multi-day event tailored to the aviation community that takes place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada. A ...

in 1965. He is the third most successful competitor in

Reno Air Race The Reno Air Races, officially known as the STIHL National Championship Air Races from 2016, is a multi-day event tailored to the aviation community that takes place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, Nevada. ...

history.

History

On August 16, 1969, flying the highly modified Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat "Conquest I" (N1111L), Greenamyer broke the 30-year-old FAI Class C-1 Group I 3 km

speed record A speed record is a world record for speed by a person, animal, or vehicle. The function of speed record is to record the speed of moving animate objects such as humans, animals or vehicles. Overall speed record Overall speed record is the recor ...

with a speed of . An earlier attempt in 1966 by Greenamyer had to be aborted due to directional stability problems and an attempt in 1968 ended with a blown piston. The previous record had been set by

Fritz Wendel Friedrich "Fritz" Wendel (February 21, 1915 – February 9, 1975) was a German test pilot during the 1930s and 1940s. Achievements On 26 April 1939 Fritz Wendel set the Flight airspeed record, world air speed record of , flying the Messerschmitt ...

flying a German Messerschmitt Me 209 in 1939.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collections database, Grumman F8F-2, Bearcat, "Conquest I," object A19770989000. The record-breaking was featured in the 1970 documentary "Man for the Record" (Pennzoil/Cobra Enterprises). Greenamyer won the

National Air Races The National Air Races (also known as Pulitzer Trophy Races) are a series of pylon and cross-country races that have taken place in the United States since 1920. The science of aviation, and the speed and reliability of aircraft and engines grew ...

six times with this airplane before donating it to the Smithsonian in 1977.

"Red Baron" F-104

On October 24, 1977, Greenamyer, flying a modified

F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

"Red Baron" (N104RB), set a FAI Class C-1 Group III 3 km speed record of , which still stands. An earlier attempt on October 2, 1976 yielded a higher speed (), but one timing camera didn't work on one run, meaning the record couldn't be certified. He built the Starfighter by collecting and putting together myriad parts over a 13-year period. The cockpit side panels and some control column bearings of the Red Baron came from the very first production F-104A, which crashed in Palmdale, California 22 years earlier. The tail of the Red Baron, minus stabilizers, came from a junkyard in Ontario, California. The stabilizers and some nose wheel parts were from scrap piles in Tucson and Homestead, Florida. The idler arm for the elevator controls, the ejection seat rails and some electrical relays came from an F-104 that crashed and burned at Edwards Air Force Base on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Greenamyer got his throttle quadrant from a Tennessee flying buff he met at the Reno National Air Races. The trunnion mounts for the nose gear, some of the cooling-system valves and a few relays on the Red Baron came from a 25-ton pile of junk that Greenamyer bought at Eglin Air Force Base. In a swap with NASA, he obtained the nose of a

Lockheed NF-104A The Lockheed NF-104A was an American mixed-power, high-performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as a low-cost astronaut training vehicle for the North American X-15 and projected Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar programs. Three aircraft were ...

, with its reaction controls. The all-important J79-GE-10 engine was obtained from the US Navy. On February 26, 1978, while preparing an assault on the FAI altitude record using the same aircraft, he was unable to get the landing gear to lock before landing. As it was dangerous to land in this condition, he was forced to eject and the airplane was destroyed.

Other projects

In 1994, Greenamyer led an unsuccessful mission to rescue the

Kee Bird The ''Kee Bird'' was a United States Army Air Forces Boeing B-29 Superfortress, serial ''45-21768'', of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, that became marooned after making an emergency landing in northwest Greenland during a secret Cold War sp ...

, a

B-29 The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fly ...

aircraft which crash-landed in

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

in 1947. The attempted recovery resulted in the loss of the airframe by fire on the ground. Greenamyer had been working on building an Unlimited Class racer named "Shockwave". This racer combines the outer wing panels of a Sea Fury with a new centersection and fuselage. The tail is from a F-86 Sabre and it is planned to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-4360. After the Sport Class was introduced at the Reno Air Races in 1998, Greenamyer built a

Lancair Legacy The Lancair Legacy, a modernized version of the Lancair 320, is a low-wing two-place retractable-gear composite monoplane, manufactured by the American company Lancair. It is available as a kit that cost US$71,500 in 2011.Vandermeullen, R ...

(N33XP) that he has since raced successfully.

Other sports

Besides aircraft, Greenamyer was also active in drag racing. In addition, he owned several classic Ferraris.1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Serial Number 10669
Retrieved 29 June 2011.

Awards

He was inducted into the

Motorsports Hall of Fame of America The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) is hall of fame that honors motorsports competitors and contributors from the United States from all disciplines, with categories for Open Wheel, Stock Cars, Powerboats, Drag Racing, Motorcycles, Sp ...

in 1997.Darryl Greenamyer
at the

He received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award in 1970 for the successful speed record achievement in 1969.

References

External links

Daryl Greenamyer at Family Tree Maker website
(retrieved 2013-12-24) {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenamyer, Darryl 1936 births 2018 deaths People from South Gate, California Military personnel from California U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School alumni American air racers American test pilots American aviation record holders Aviators from California