George Morse's slick new V-8 powered 2-seater that looks alittle like a lot of the best of World War ll's front line fighters.

by JACK COX

For a while I was beginning to think Iwas chasing a phantom of some sort atOshkosh '86. It seemed that every timeI ran across an acquaintance I would begreeted with something like:

"Hey, have you seen that little Spitfire— boy, is it neat!"

Or. . ."Whatta you think of that little P-40 —

isn't that something!"Well . . . uh, no, I hadn't seen that

little Spitfire . . . or that little P-40, or theMustang or the Macchi . . . and I haveto tell you I was getting concerned. It'smy job to see all the homebuilts at Osh-kosh each year and I religiously tour theentire parking area a couple of times

each day to be sure I don't miss any-thing . . . yet I hadn't seen any of the"super neat" scaled replicas everyonewas raving about. What kind of will-o'-the-wisp airplanes were out there that Icouldn't catch up to?

Then someone said the magic words. . . and the mystery was solved:

"Didja see that fantabulous III' Spitfirewith the V-8 engine?"

"V-8 engine". . . aha! Then I knew —they were talking about George Morse'sProwler. All of them, those who thoughtit looked like a Spitfire, those whothought it resembled a P-40 . . . a Mus-tang . . . a Macchi . . . or whatever —all were talking about the same

airplane! I had seen the Prowler the pre-vious year at Watsonville, CA and againlast spring at Merced, CA and in bothinstances it seemed the airplane wassome sort of memory mirror. Everyonewho saw it saw something different. . .usually their favorite World War II erafighter, I found.

Just what manner of machine wasthis that pleased so many aesthetically... that impressed them so much with itsdesign innovation and fine workman-ship?

The Prowler airframe owes its veryexistence to its engine, a projectGeorge Morse has been working onsince 1972. Called the Auto Aviation V-8,

12 MAY 1987

by dual distributors. A wet sump lubrica-tion system is used and the little V-8 iscooled by two undenting radiators(Cadillac/Corvette evaporators). Capa-ble of handling 180 psi, the system hasan 11 quart coolant capacity. Oil andcoolant operating temperatures, oftenthe bugaboo of auto engine conver-sions, have not been a problem in theProwler. A recent change has been aswitch to lower compression and largervalves . . . in anticipation of installingtwo turbochargers. George's accessorysection contains no less than 11 differ-ent drives, running, among other things,two water pumps, the alternator andfuel pump.

At precisely 4,342 engine rpm and2,600 prop revs, the engine is develop-ing 250 horsepower, according toGeorge's calculations. The total engine/accessory package weighs 420 poundsin the prototype.

Incidentally, you may hear theProwler is powered "by an Offenhauserengine." The Olds V-8 is fitted with a setof after market valve covers with thename "Offenhauser" on them, whichhas led some observers to concludethat an alky burning Indy car 4-bangerlurks within the cowling. No, no... no!

Years ago when George first got hisV-8 powered Skybolt flying, he told meit was just a test bed for an airplane hehoped to eventually build. That airplaneturned out to be the Prowler, of course.Of typical metal aircraft stressed skin,flush riveted construction, it contains no

fiberglass — even the highly compoundcurved cowling is metal, beaten out byhand for the prototype by an artisannamed Jim Logan. Jim is one of thoseold school metal pounders in whosetalented hands a sheet of aluminum islike soft plastic.

The wing is a 3-piece, 2-spar assem-bly with a span of 25 feet 4 inches. Thewing root airfoil is a NACA 64A212 andthis transitions to a 64A210 at the tip,which is washed out 3 degrees. The ribswere formed from .040 2024-0, thenheat treated. The center section is 8feet in span, which permits legal high-way towing when the outer panels areremoved. The wing leading edges aresealed internally to create fuel tanks. In-cluding a fuselage mounted headertank, the total fuel capacity of the pro-totype is 35 gallons, but there is roomin the wing to up that to about 60 gal-lons.

The tail surfaces are constructedmuch like the wing. The vertical fin isoffset a half a degree to the left and thehorizontal stabilizer has a half degreeof negative incidence.

The ailerons and elevators are ac-tuated by push rods and the rudder bycables.

The oval fuselage is built up usingbulkheads, stringers and stressed skin.The cockpit seats two in tandem withthe single instrument panel in front.Both seating positions have stick, rud-der pedals, brakes and engine controls.As you can see in one of the accom-

it is a development of the aluminumblock 215 Olds V-8 introduced by GMin the early 60s for its then new "com-pact" cars. Its most significant featureis a 1.67 to 1 geared reduction unit, witha unique "circulatory oil bath" ofGeorge's own design which he believesis key to its durability. He has been fly-ing one of the engine/gearbox combina-tions for years .. . and about 330 hours. . . on the nose of his Skybolt, and inseveral tear-down inspections hasfound no visible sign of wear on the hel-ical gears. At Oshkosh '86, the Prowlerhad been flown 167 hours and the en-gine/gearbox/3-blade McCauley con-stant speed prop combination had beenperforming like a champ, including thejust completed flight east from George'sbase of operation at the Watsonville,CA airport.

Over the years, George has modifiedthe basic 215 Olds engine, includingsuch things as refitting it with a Buick300 crankshaft that increases the dis-placement to 266 cubic inches. A Ben-dix PSH5-BD carburetor is used andeach cylinder's single spark plug is fired

All Photos ByCarl Schuppel

panying photographs, the entire cockpitis sealed off from the rest of the fuse-lage with sheet metal. It is one of thecleanest 'pits I've ever seen on any kindof airplane, and painted a light color,there are no dark corners to hide errantscrews, keys, coins, etc., that inevitablyfind their way onto cockpit floors. Theairplane can be soloed from either seat,but George prefers the rear one, proba-bly because he is accustomed to flyinghis Skybolt from back there where realpilots sit.

An 8 foot long bubble canopy fromGee Bee is hinged to swing up and tothe right for access to the cockpit, andthe windshield is fixed.

At this point I ask you to pause for asecond and look at the Prowler's land-ing gear legs . . . obviously stock unitsoff some factory job, right? Wrong! Theyare George Morse designed and built,utilizing only a few off-the-shelf items,like Cessna axles. Cleveland wheelsand brakes, with 6:00x6 tires, are usedand are "in scale" in appearance for thesize of the airplane.

The retractable tailwheel combines aScott wheel and fork with George's ownretraction mechanism, hydraulically ac-tuated as are the mains, the gear doorsand the flaps. The inner doors for themains are on a separate circuit and canbe operated independently. You sharpeyed readers will no doubt notice thatGeorge was experiencing a minor glitchwith his tail wheel doors during our air-to-air photo mission at Oshkosh '86.

Initially, George had a military style

tail wheel steering system — stick for-ward to unlock the tailwheel and allowit to swivel freely; stick back to engageit for steering through the rudder pedals.Once he began flying the airplane, hefound it to be so easy to handle withdifferential braking only that he re-moved the locking system to saveweight.

The Prowler prototype has an emptyweight of 1362 pounds, a maximumtake-off weight of 2,000 pounds, a wingarea of 104 square feet and a wing load-ing of 19.23 pounds per square foot. Atgross and with the engine cranking out

250 hp, the power loading is 8 poundsper horsepower. The design dive speedis 250 mph CAS and the redline is 275.The flaps can be safely lowered at 150mph, the gear at 125. Top speed at sealevel is 220 mph and the initial rate ofclimb is about 2200 mph.

It took George three years of full timework to design and build the Prowlerprototype. The first flight was on March17, 1985 at the Watsonville, CA airport.From the start, he has been pleasantlysurprised with the airplane's handling —nice and solid, he says, and hands offin calm air. On the trip east to Oshkosh

14 MAY 1987

last summer the Olds V-8 hauled theProwler along at groundspeeds as highas 225 mph, burning about 10 gallonsper hour.

When the Prowler landed at Osh-kosh, both the airplane and its designerwere new on the scene for probably themajority of EAA members. Actually,however, George Morse has been com-ing to Oshkosh for years. He's such alow key, modest sort of fellow, however,that it took something as spectacular asthe Prowler to make him stand out inthe crowd at Wittman Field. He broughtthe first component of what would ulti-mately evolve into the Prowler to Osh-kosh in 1974, as a matter of fact, drivingfrom California in a little pick-up with hisV-8 conversion mounted back on thebed.

He spent the week running it for thegreat number of EAAers who were in-terested and amazed one and all withthe small V-8's willingness to pull thebig constant speed propeller he wasusing as a test club.

George Morse was born in the highcountry of western Colorado, in thetown of Delta, but grew up in Californiawhere his parents had moved before hewas ten. He served a 7 year hitch in theAir Force, and subsequently spent asimilar period in the radio and TV repairbusiness. In 1952 he and his wife, Kath-leen, moved to the Santa Cruz area andraised five children in the years that fol-lowed. In the early '60s he became theparts manager for an Oldsmobile deal-er, and it was there that he becameaware of the potential of combining vari-ous off-the-shelf GM parts and pieces .. . crankshafts, cams, gear sets . . . tocreate a version of the small aluminumblock V-8s then coming onto the au-tomotive scene, plus a reduction gear-box, that would be suitable for use in

airplanes.George had always been interested

in aviation, but had to content himselfbuilding models until, in 1967, his familyobligations were such that he felt hecould justify learning to fly. After de-veloping his aircraft version of the 215Olds, he went into business for himselfand, over the years, has built up 13 ofthem for sale to others. Currently, he isworking on a similar conversion of the350 Chevy engine — or, more pre-cisely, a racing version of that engine.Starting with the Rodeck aftermarketblock used in race cars, George willselect internal moving parts from thebest of production car and racing partsbins to adapt the engine to aircraft oper-ation.

It will crank out 350 hp and Georgethinks it will go forever between over-hauls, but the initial price won't becheap. He figures it will have to costabout $15,000 . . . which is still a lot lessthan what you have to pay for 350 horse-power from Continental or Lycoming.The 215 Olds conversion will continueto be available even after the Chevy isdeveloped so that Prowler builders canhave a less expensive option. The propcurrently on the airplane, incidentally, isa 3-blade unit normally used on theCessna 206. The 3-blade McCauleyused on the P-210 has been identifiedas a good selection for the 350 Chevy.

In late February, George told SportAviation that aerobatic pilot WayneHandley had flight tested the airplaneto + 6/ ± 3 Gs and likely will fly an air-show routine in it at Watsonville, CAover the Memorial Day weekend and,possibly, again at the Merced Fly-In acouple of weeks later. George had log-ged about 200 hours in the 2 year old

George Morse

airplane at that time.At this point, George believes Prowler

kits are at least a year away. He wantsto develop a very complete kit, includingengine, prop and avionics, and thattakes time and a considerable amountof up front resources. At the moment,he has separate information kits on theAuto Aviation V-8 and the Prowler for$12.50 each, and a video tape on theProwler should be available by the timeyou are reading this for $24.95. A newcompany has been formed to marketthe info packets and kits: Prowler Avia-tion Corporation, 160 Aviation Way,Watsonville, CA 95076.

SPORT AVIATION 15