KW:

278 MPH! Wow, that's fast for a HS. I'd like to see that. I have a P-120(27lbs installed) on my composite HS. It weights 23.5lbs dry and I carry 84oz of fuel. No gear doors. I have the JetCat speed limiter for speed monitoring and control. I have never had access to a gun.

When I turn it off and let it rip, I can hit 200MPH at 85F and 1800 ft density altitude. In the spring and fall, with close to standard conditions, it will hit 210MPH, but that's it, from a straight and level approach. Coming out of a full-power loop, reverse cuban, or split-S entered at about 600 feet, these numbers go up, but nowhere near 278. It's the old problem of increasing induced drag with the G-load on the pull out. And, if you pull really to hard, it's the old wing-waggle, accelerated stall right into the ground. A HotSpot is very resistant to dropping a tip with a 1G stall, but can get nasty with accelerated stalls.

Gear weight and gear openings without doors extract a large penalty on HS speed, especially the nose gear opening of the HS. One of the German guys at Superman 2000 told me that some of the locals over there build HS's with no gear or gear openings, launch them off dollies with an electric glider winch, kevlar and carbon fiber the wings and tail, and have hit over 300 with an Oly for the kicker.

Tad, at GWM, is bringing out his composite Blade. It's basically a HS with straight, smaller fins like the Firebird, and an enclosed, smoothly-faired engine compartment. With gear doors, that should be a rocket.

Tom