Darryl Greenamyer Darryl Greenamyer is an American aviator . He started his flying career in the US Air Force Reserve . After leaving the Air Force , he then began to work at Lockheed where he eventually became an SR - 71 test pilot at Skunk works . While working at Lockheed he met many of the engineers who would later help him make modifications to future race planes . He won his first victory in the Unlimited Class at the Reno Air Races in 1965 . He is the third most winning competitor in Reno Air Race history . On August 16 , 1969 , flying the highly - modified Grumman F8F - 2 Bearcat " Conquest I " ( N1111L ) , Greenamyer broke the 30 - year old FAI Class C - 1 Group I 3 km speed record with a speed of 483 . 041 mph . An earlier attempt in 1966 by Greenamyer had to be aborted due to directional stability problems and an attempt in 1968 ended with a blown piston . The previous record had been set by Fritz Wendel flying a German Messerschmitt Me 209 in 1939 . The record - breaking was featured in the 1970 documentary " Man for the Record " ( Pennzoil / Cobra Enterprises ) . Greenamyer won the National Air Races six times with this airplane before donating it to the Smithsonian in 1977 . On October 24 , 1977 , Greenamyer , flying a modified F - 104 Starfighter " Red Baron " ( N104RB ) , set a FAI Class C - 1 Group III 3 km speed record of 988 . 26 mph , which still stands . An earlier attempt on October 2 , 1976 yielded a higher time ( 1 , 010 mph ) , but one timing camera didn ' t work on one run , meaning the record couldn ' t be certified . He built the Starfighter by collecting and putting together a myriad of parts over a 13 year period . The cockpit side panels and some control column bearings of the Red Baron came from the very first production F - 104A , which crashed in Palmdale , California 22 years earlier . The tail of the Red Baron , minus stabilizers , came from a junkyard in Ontario , California . The stabilizers and some nose wheel parts were from scrap piles in Tucson and Homestead , Florida . The idler arm for the elevator controls , the ejection seat rails and some electrical relays came from an F - 104 that crashed and burned at Edwards Air Force Base on the edge of the Mojave Desert . Greenamyer got his throttle quadrant from a Tennessee flying buff he met at the Reno National Air Races . The trunnion mounts for the nose gear , some of the cooling - system valves and a few relays on the Red Baron came from a 25 - ton pile of junk that Greenamyer bought at Eglin Air Force Base . In a swap with NASA , he obtained the nose of a Lockheed NF - 104A , with its reaction controls . The all - important J79 - GE - 10 engine was obtained from the US Navy . On February 26 , 1978 , while preparing an assault on the FAI altitude record using the same aircraft , he was unable to get the landing gear to lock before landing . As it was dangerous to land in this condition , he was forced to eject and the airplane was destroyed . In 1994 , Greenamyer led an unsuccessful mission to rescue the Kee Bird , a B - 29 aircraft which crash - landed in Greenland in 1947 . The attempted recovery resulted in the loss of the airframe by fire on the ground . Greenamyer has been working on building an Unlimited Class racer named " Shockwave " . This racer combines the outer wing panels of a Sea Fury with a new centersection and fuselage . The tail is from a F - 86 Sabre and it is planned to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney R - 4360 . After the Sport Class was introduced at the Reno Air Races in 1998 , Greenamyer built a Lancair Legacy ( N33XP ) that he has since raced successfully . Besides aircraft , Greenamyer has also been active in drag racing . In addition , he has owned several classic Ferraris .