Summer in Seattle means Seafair. While the Flying Heritage Collection’s planes take part in the Boeing Seafair Air Show, there used to be aviation ties to the hydroplane races too. In the late 1940s and 1950s, two main factions developed in the hydro world. The teams from Detroit, drawing on their experience with building automobiles, created boats that were all about muscle and power. The men of the Seattle teams, many of whom had “day jobs” at Boeing, used technology, clever design and aerodynamics (and hydrodynamics) in their attempts to gain the edge. A Seattle boat, Slo-Mo-Shun IV, changed the sport when a Boeing engineer figured out that, if you could control it, the hydro could go much faster skipping along the surface of the race course instead of plowing through the water. Boeing designer Ted Jones, along with Anchor Jensen (builder) and Stan Sayres (owner) made the fastest boat in the world (160 mph) in 1950. Incidentally, the Slo-Mo IV was powered by a war surplus Allison V-1710 fighter plane engine.
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