Blue Thunder II Emergency Landing

During the Tuesday afternoon qualifying session for the 2017 Reno National Championship Air Races, the pilot of Blue Thunder II, John Parker, experienced a catastrophic engine failure that took us out of the races for this year. The Blue II telemetry crew, 51 Aero, is currently examining all the data to try and determine the cause of the failure. Regardless of the cause, the ground crew was extremely happy to see John safely on the ground and is looking forward to racing another day. //UPDATE// From John Parker, the pilot of Blue Thunder II "After an excellent year of racing by all competitors at Reno, the Blue Thunder Crew has had a chance to look through the data for Tuesday’s event—we wanted to share a bit about what we learned so far. Although the root cause is still unclear, the engine experienced an overspeed event shortly after takeoff. This resulted in valve float, causing a number of valves to come into contact with their respective pistons. The affected pistons failed, causing a rapid degradation of engine rotating components. The camshaft was broken, the crankshaft was damaged, and two connecting rods departed through the case—one of which impacted the primary electrical system’s battery, causing a loss of electrical power as well. We’ll continue to analyze the remaining clues, but rest assured the team has a plan to return to Reno next year with a vengeance! We’d also like to thank all of our fans and sponsors for their continued support—we’re all looking forward to another great season of airshows and racing ahead."