— —

Mike Wigen's Z-250. It had nitrous! The aircraft was built by Steve Wolf who also built the Cyclone (also commissioned and owned by Mike Wigen a few years after the Z-250). Steve Wolf was probably most famous as the builder of "Sampson", which was a big Curtiss Pitts designed biplane with the P&W R-985 radial. Rumor has it the Z-250 earned it's nickname "Sooner" because no matter how fast Steve built it Mike Wigen always insisted it be done "sooner", lol.

EDIT: I'm editing this because of course Steve Wolf was *most famous* as the builder of Delmar Benjamin's Gee Bee R2! Sorry about that Steve!

I shot this in approximately 1981 on slide film at an airshow. This is merely a DSLR photo of an Echtacrome slide I processed myself roughly 35 years ago when I was probably still in High School. The airport was last known as 21D4, "Silverwood" on the northern outskirts of Coeur d' Alene Idaho (KCOE). At the time this shot was taken I believe it was known as Henley Aerodrome. There is no longer an airport there, it's an amusement park now.