Photographing the Firebird Extra 300's aerobatic capabilities is nothing if not dramatic.
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICHMark Wagner/LONDON
Flight International photographer Mark Wagner, enthusing about his passenger-seat introduction to the Extra 300, says: "I was taking a couple of shots from the front cockpit, when we went completely berserk. Suddenly the world was just everywhere - it was like the ultimate roller coaster ride."
The manoeuvre to which he was subjected by pilot Brian Lecomber, is known as an "avalanche" and is described in more conventional terms by Lecomber's firm, Aylesbury-based Firebird Aerobatics, as "...a succession of flick rolls". It is one of many showstoppers, which the former British freestyle champion has in his repertoire, which he is now employing to publicise the Rover Group.
The car manufacturer has awarded Firebird a three-year promotional deal for its aerobatic team of two Extra 300s. The pilots are Lecomber - who is also Firebird's managing director - and Alan Wade, a professional display pilot with six years' experience with the company.
The team's powerful little aircraft are built by Germany's Extra-Flugzeugbau, and designed for unlimited competition aerobatics. First flown in 1988, the Extra 300 weighs 630kg empty, and has a 224kW (300hp) Textron Lycoming AEIO-540-L1B5 flat-six engine, driving a three-bladed Muhlbauer constant-speed propeller.
The power-to-weight ratio, allows the Extra to climb at 3,300ft/min (17m/s), while the mixed metal and composite airframe, allows it to perform solo aerobatics to ±10G, with a roll rate of 370°/s. The composite-spar wings are stressed to over 20G, says Firebird, and only flex four inches at the tip in 10g manoeuvres.
Firebird's Rover Group team will get plenty of opportunity to demonstrate the aircraft's performance with a first-season programme of more than 70 displays around Europe.
Together with its two Rover-sponsored aircraft, Firebird owns a third Extra 300, now flying under sponsorship from electronic-test-equipment leasing company Microlease. The aerobatics firm also owns a vintage Stampe biplane and a venerable Pitts Special, from which Wagner shot some of the air-to-air photographs shown here.
Source: Flight International
