Lee Behel

Wesley "Lee" Behel was an American aviator and air racing champion.[1] He was the creator and, at the time of his death the president, of the "Sport Class"[2] a group of racing airplanes designed for planes under 1000 cubic inches in size that participate in the Reno Air Races each year in September, as well as a retired Lt. Colonel in the Nevada Air National Guard.[3]

Behel joined the Nevada Air National Guard in 1972, where he flew several aircraft, including the F-101 Voodoo, the F4 Phantom in which he accumulated 2,500 hours of flight time, as well as the RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft.[4] He retired from the Guard in 1996.

In 2000, he first flew in the AirVenture Cup Race, a cross-country open-circuit air race, with his ten-year-old son Jay on board. He would fly that race fifteen straight years.[4]

On 8 September 2014, Behel perished while flying Sweet Dreams, a custom built one of a kind[5] aircraft that was powered by a Chevrolet small-block engine that had been adapted for use in this specific aircraft.[6]

The crash took place in the north end of the race course when the plane Behel was flying suffered a "catastrophic mechanical failure" at 3:16 p.m.[7] According to witnesses, the aircraft took off and flew to enter the course. Around the 5th outer pylon, in an area of the course known as "High-G Ridge",[8] sections of the right wing broke away from the airplane, which then rolled sharply to the right and impacted the ground.[9] The aircraft was estimated to be traveling nearly 400 miles per hour (640 km/h) and was no more than 100 feet (30 m) off the ground when the failure occurred.

The crash occurred during a qualifying heat early in the 2014 Reno Air Race program and will be investigated by the NTSB as well as the FAA. Behel was a certified fighter jet pilot who also enjoyed flying high-performance single-engine race planes.[1] Behel had once owned Steven's Creek Porsche/Audi in Santa Clara, a business that he had sold in 2012.[8]

In April 2014, Behel had set three class world records in the same aircraft: Speed over a 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) course, 3 km time-to-climb, and speed over a 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) course.[4] Additionally, at the time of his death he held the world speed records for the RF-4C in 100 and 500 km closed courses.[4]