"Silent Wings" Soars
Yeah, I know, the idea of a jet-powered glider sounds like
somethin’ right out of the Jetsons. But it’s not. A
forward-thinking gentleman named Bob Carlton mounted two
side-by-side Amt USA AT 450 engines, engines actually designed for
smaller radio-controlled airplanes, to a retractable pod. Then, he
stuck all of this on top of an Italian Alisport glider.
Bob can not only make this glider fly and soar. Bob can make
this glider dance.
If you’ve never seen the Silent Wings air show, it’s
a real treat and one of the prettiest flight demonstration
you’ll ever see. Bob self-launches utilizing the two Amt 450
engines which kick out about 90 lbs of combined thrust. He climbs
to about 2,000 feet, where he throttles back to idle and performs a
series of choreographed aerobatic maneuvers, matching movement for
movement, a song entitled: "Tamara’s Love Theme." By the end
of the song, Bob will be at five feet above the runway.
At this point, he shoves the throttles forward and his act now
becomes a quote; "No kiddin', on the deck, low-level jet show!"
The next four minutes are intense! Bob pushes this genuine fire
breather through an aggressive low-level aerobatic sequence set to
music with a little more kick.
Hey, what else can you expect a rocket scientist to do on the
weekend? That's right, Monday through Friday, he really is a rocket
scientist.
At the age of 19, Bob was introduced to aviation when he started
flying hang-gliders. He has since logged more than 2,000 hours in
everything from single engine airplanes to helicopters and earned a
commercial certificate.
Bob was inspired to join the air show business after seeing a
Manfred Radius performance in Albuquerque. Bob’s first act
used a Salto Sailplane and was very similar to the upper half of
his present jet-glider routine. For six years, Bob traveled around
the country performing at any air show he could. The only down side
to this was that he also had to travel with his own tow-plane and a
second pilot.
After watching the late
Jimmy Franklin's jet Waco, Bob thought he could adapt the same
concept to a glider. After crunching some serious numbers, Bob
concluded there actually was an engine on the market that could
provide the thrust he needed, yet was still under the weight limit
the task required. The only problem was nobody had ever tried to
put this engine on a real aircraft! And he was going to need two of
them.
Just imagine what the FAA thought.
To make a long story short, after six months of paperwork with
the FAA investigating the FAR's from every possible angle to stop
him, the FAA discovered that mounting engines designed for model
aircraft onto a human carrying aircraft is not illegal simply
because nobody had ever tried it before. With no legal way to stop
him, the FAA had to step aside and watch Bob from the ground.
Now, hundreds of thousands of spectators get the pleasure of
watching Bob from the ground. He is currently in the middle of his
third season and performing 15 shows a year.
"I’m not getting rich at this, but it is paying for my
toys and I’m sure having a lot of fun," Bob says.