Samson

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.

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Capacity: 1
• Wing area: 185 sq ft (17 m²)
• Aspect ratio: 5.76
• Empty weight: 1,900 lb (862 kg)
• Gross weight: 2,617 lb (1,187 kg)
• Powerplant: 1 × Pratt & Whitney R-985 , 450 hp ( kW)

Performance