BooRay
Bill Bischoff

I dug a little deeper into BooRay's history. My references are the "friends of IF1" Facebook page, volume 2 of the Hirsch books, John Tegler's book "Gentlemen, You Have a Race", the official program from Reno 1989, and the various "Racing Planes and Air Races" books. Surprise, Hirsch is inaccurate! What I found...

The familiar barn door wing airplane we all know as BooRay was built in 1967 by Marion Baker. In the early '70's, Baker built his next plane, "Aquarius". He sold Boo to Bob Moeller in or around 1975. Moeller raced it ostensibly "as bought" in 1975. For 1976, some mod's were done by someone named "Wicklman", and a tapered wing with squared off tips was installed. I had not realized this previously, but it became evident after examining book photos. In many cases this fact is most evident by examining the shadows of the wing on the ground. According to Facebook, the wing was designed by Don Cosgrove. At Reno in 1981, Moeller had the airplane up for sale. In 1982-83, it was raced by Carol Dietz. Other than the pictures in Hirsch's book, I have not come across any pictures of the version with the funky fuselage, or the '88-'89 version. Even the program from Reno has a picture of the late 70's/early 80's version. Somewhere along the way, the flat wrap around windshield was replaced by a molded bubble windshield. I can't find any information about it racing after 1989, but according to Facebook, the plane still exists and is owned by Greg Schultz, who was/is involved in the sport.

Here are the plans.