Was Third Most Successful Competitor In Reno Air Race History

A former Air Force Reserve pilot who went on to work at Lockheed where he became an SR-71 test pilot has Gone West. Darryl Greenamyer passed away Monday in Indio, CA. He was 82 years old.

According to Wikipedia, Greenamyer used connections made at Lockheed's Skunk Works to modify racing planes. He won his first unlimited class race at Reno in 1965, and went on to become the third most successful competitor in the history of the races.

Among his records, on August 16, flying the highly modified Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat "Conquest I" , Greenamyer broke the 30-year-old FAI Class C-1 Group I 3 km speed record with a speed of 419.75 knots. He won the National Air Races six times with the airplane before donating it to the Smithsonian in 1977.

On October 24, 1977, Greenamyer, flying a modified F-104 Starfighter "Red Baron", set a FAI Class C-1 Group III 3 km speed record of 858.77 knots, which still stands.

According to Wikipedia, Greenamyer built the Starfighter from parts over a 13-year period. Some of those parts came from the very first production F-104A which had gone down in Palmdale, CA 22 years before he began his project. The "Red Baron" was lost as Greenamyer was preparing to attempt the FAI altitude record. He was unable to lock the landing gear in place before landing on a practice flight, and he was forced to eject from the airplane, which was destroyed.

(F-104 image from file. Not Greenamyer's airplane)

FMI: Wikipedia entry