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| A happy Spencer Lisenby recovers Kinetic, his own-design glider after setting the new world Dynamic Soaring speed record at 357mph (John Buxton photo)
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On April 30th 2008 American Spencer Lisenby Dynamic Soared his own-design 100" span Kinetic glider to a new world record speed of 357mph.
Spencer was flying at Weldon hill, Lake Isabella, California in winds exceeding 50mph over the top of the ridge. Earlier in the day he had broken the existing world record of 316mph by pushing the speed up to 333mph before his later flight when fellow soarer Jason Lilly measured the Kinetic at 357mph around the bottom turn of the circuit.
DS speeds have been stuck in the low 300's of late while development work has been carried out in conjunction with the manufacturer of the portable radar guns used to measure these slippery gliders. By working with Maurice Shelton at Kustom Signals, the guys chasing the record have developed a gun capable of reading up to 375mph. It's currently the only one of it's kind in the world and has already been pushed to within 18mph of it's upper limit. Spencer feels that Kinetic is capable of speeds in excess of 400mph, he's just waiting for the radar guns to catch up!
It goes without saying that speeds of this magnitude require a special kind of model and readers will be able to find out more about these soon in my On The Edge column here in a forthcoming issue of RCM&E.
You can see an awesome video of the model in flight by following the forum thread below (click on 'read more').
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