Tony wrote:

    The man who built the turbine for the Luscombe, Jeff Frazier,  lives at
the airpark I hang out at.  I've been very interested in his work and have
watched him work on these engines.  The basic engine already has a very
precision planetary gear reduction built into the turbine that reduces the
63k rpm down to around 6k.  The input shaft to the sun gear is surprisingly
little, about 3/8" in diameter but again very exotic and precise.  The
torque delivered at turbine output is similarly small and since power pulses
do not exist the apparently small gears work well.
    I have considered this form of power for my RV8 for two reason that are
obvious, the 150hp engine weighs 120lbs and requires no auxiliary cooling.
The downside is BSFC - Jeff claims that at full load the 150 hp engine will
burn 21 gph.  The cost of these engines is also high.  Jeff sells the 150 hp
version for around $15k without redrive or prop.  An adjustable prop is a
must with this engine since it is the only way to vary thrust - the engine
constantly runs at 63k rpm. Good used replacement parts are like hens teeth
and new parts are priceless.
    13B continues to look like the conversion for the masses!!!
Tony Livic

p.s:  The Luscombe crashed near Huston because of inflight power failure,
bending the aircraft considerably but no fatalities.  The engine is being
returned to Jeff next week for trouble shooting.  Jeff speculates that a
fuel delivery problem caused the power interuption.  Jeff's 100 hp version
of this engine powered the BD5 that went down last year because of fuel
contamination.

 
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