Jack Brush began his aviation career as a rated navigator while at the United States Air Force Academy, where he was in the second class to ever graduate. He then attended Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) and was assigned to fly the C-124. In two years, he amassed 2000 flying hours, and then attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his Master of Science Degree in Aeronautics.
While teaching Aeronautics and Economics at the Air Force Academy, he continued to fly with cadets, then received his PhD from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and returned to teach Economics at the Academy.
Following retirement from the Air Force, he founded Columbine Capital Services, an internationally recognized quantitative equity modeling firm. At Columbine, he purchased an Aerostar 601P aircraft to use for business travel. After talking to other Aerostar owners, he discovered that his airplane was significantly faster than others of the same model, and the idea of setting a world record was born. He soon learned that setting a record could be very hard on an airplane, and he decided to sell his company and keep the airplane. And he vowed to not do anything that would harm is plane.
In this podcast, Jack explains that there is a lot of planning and coordination that goes into setting a world record. A major factor is fuel capacity. If the engines are operated at a high power setting, fuel is used at an increased rate and the airplane's fuel capacity may not be sufficient for a 2000 km course and a required emergency reserve. Jack had to continuously monitor weather patterns, to determine when winds and temperatures would be favorable for his planned course. An international observer is required for the record attempt, and that requires advance planning. Finally, Jack had to plan how to perform his mid-point turns as efficiently as possible, to minimize time in the turn and avoid losing airspeed.