Liability Waiver
The Reno Air Race is an annual event celebrated each year in the Reno Stead Airport in the north location of Reno, Nevada, United States of America. During the 2011 edition, one airplane crashed with the surface having a result of the death of the pilot Jimmy Leeward and ten spectators and 70 people injured.
The airplane under consideration was the Galloping Ghost, a P-51D-15-NA Mustang manufactured by North American Aviation in 1944 to the United States Air Force to be used against Germany and its allies in the World War II. The war suddenly ends, and the airplane was transferred to a US Air Force deposit in Arkansas and finally sold to Aero-Trans Corp of Ocala, Florida. The airplane suffered modifications in the length reduction of wings, a change in the design and final weight of horizontal tail, the reduction of aircraft drag improving the lift ratio of the airplane and a general weight reduction with the removal of military equipment inside the airplane .
The airplane was used for exhibition and leasing purposes previous to the crash. On September 16, 2011; the airplane participated in the Reno Air Race, but it suffered a deadly accident. There are two main causes of the failure of the airplane. The first cause is a human cause, because of the maneuver of the pilot generating an acceleration force of 137.8 m/s2 affecting to pilot capacity to have control of the aircraft. In the other hand, the several modifications of the aircraft as the change in the gravity center, overall weight and the change in length of the wings and horizontal tail provoked the loss of the port elevator trim tab and the detachment of lock-nuts affected for the wear for the last 70 years.
Reference List
NTSB. (2016). Pilot/Race 177, The Galloping Ghost. Retrieved from NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/AAB1201.pdf
