Griggs Aircraft Refinishing

Samson

This Samson is a replica of the Pitts Samson built in 1948 by Curtis Pitts. Samson was completed in 1985. SAMSON was the first replica Steve Wolf built.

It was built as the ultimate airshow performing plane with lots of noise, smoke and performance. The 985 Pratt and Whitney swung a 10 foot diameter propeller which would have a full 7 inches go supersonic during a routine, making this one of the noisiest planes on the circuit. Dual smoke pumps also made it one of the smokiest! With a power to weight ratio 50% better than a P51 Mustang, it had a fantastic climb rate. Steve showed this in his routine by taking off from a standstill, performing a full roll then into 3 consecutive Immelmans all within 1500 feet from take off! It performed so well that during take off you could climb out knife edge and by the end of a 4000 foot runway you could roll inverted and split-S through. It is one of the few airplanes that could pivot 90 degrees and fly knife edge out of a hammerhead. The airplane is fun to fly because it never quits flying. It is very mild in the stall and has so much thrust that anything over 120 mph was wasted airspeed. SAMSON has a cruise speed of 180 mph which makes it easy to travel from show to show. Steve used SAMSON for 9 full airshow seasons prior to selling it to Bobby Younkin. Bobby has modified the exhaust system, propeller and paint scheme and is still performing with it today.

Samson II

Samson II is a modified version of the original Samson. It is owned by Walter Maisch and is hangared in Freiberg, Germany. Walter designed the paint scheme and is currently flying Samson II at Airshows in Europe.

Hughes H-1 Racer Replica

This beautiful plane is a replica of the Hughes H-1 racer originally built by Howard Hughes in 1935. It was created as a team effort by bringing the best in the business together to build each part. Wolf Aircraft was hired to build the 32 foot span all wood wing. This wing was built from photographs and measurements off the original H-1 now in the National Air and Space Museum as no drawings were available. This plane was the first aircraft with skin stressed wings. The wing skin carries more of the flight load than the spar. These wing skins start out 1П2 inch thick at the inboard and by the wing tip taper down to 1/8 inch thick. This is achieved by laminating many layers of plywood of various lengths. This results in a very strong wing able to tolerate 10gs. The wing included retractable landing gear, 160 gallon custom fuel tanks, Oxygen system, split flaps, oil cooler and ducts. The complex metal ducts were painstakingly hand formed and welded by Steve. As a result of Steve's expertise, the plane flew hands off at speeds of 350 mph.

This aircraft has gone on to set a world speed record in its weight class.

Superstinker S1-11B

Sean Worthington is very happy with his S1-11B Super Stinker Pitts. In order to eliminate the common tail buffet associated with the S1-11B, we added custom wing root fairings which resemble an F-18 in the front and a Spitfire in the rear. Our labor was rewarded by having excellent tail control in flight testing. This Wolf modified Pitts has ram air induction to increase power to the cold air sump IO 540. This is giving us 27 inches at 5000 feet with an indicated airspeed of 195 mph. From 4000 feet at 25 inches and 2500 rpm we are getting 2100 feet vertical penetration. The big whirlwind prop seems to be working fine and gives the plane a mean look. Sean is extremely pleased with his plane and how it performs.

WolfPitts

The Wolfpitts is a highly refined Pitts S1S. Starting from scratch, Wolf Aircraft designed and built the Wolfpitts which includes, Wolfpitts wings with aerodynamically boosted ailerons, squared wing tips, reshaped tail, flush canopy rails, carbon fiber annular inlet cowl and rod type landing gear. Norm Willis placed 1st in the first 3 competitions he flew at the advanced level in the Wolfpitts.

Gee Bee R2 Replica

Wolf Aircraft designed and built this Gee Bee R-2 replica for Delmar Benjamin. Completed in 1991, this Gee Bee has made thousands of performances all around the globe. The Gee Bee R-2 has now been retired from airshow flying after more than 1600hr of flight time.