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At Mudd Lake NV, in 1977, when Darryl Greenamyer was flying his F-104RB for the low-altitude absolute speed record, Bob Reichardt brought his restored/replica Mr. Mulligan to try for speed records in its classes. After watching the first day's practices ( I was filming the event for "scientific purposes" , I was alarmed at the altitude he was flying at..
At dinner that night, I mentioned this to him, suggesting he might fly a little higher.. He told me he was taking advantage of the ground effect.
He did set a class record for the plane that weekend... but....
Almost everyone went home after Darryl's successful flights on Saturday and Sunday... Bob decided to try on Monday for the record for the next class. He took his wife along....
There's a Goodyear commercial that shows the result...
With no cars and motorhomes on the lakebed to provide real-time altitude information, he flew into the lakebed at a shallow angle. The tires disintegrated, broke the wheel pants, the plane tumbled nose-first into the lake bed at something over 300 mph.
This image is from one of the passes he made on Sat. or Sun. The red bottle is at the top of a 15 foot pole...