tommayer wrote:

Paul,
    FYI, the Monocoupes used Curtiss Reed props, 76 inches long, according to my Monocoupe pal.  I run a 75 inch C/S Hartzell on my Mustang.  I doubt it has much longer gear legs than an RV.  I don't have much experience with Monocoupes, but they are not big airplanes, nor do they have real long gear legs.  You're the expert, but it does not seem to me a 185 Warner turning a 76 inch prop compared to a 2:85  200 hp rotary turning a 75 or 74 inch prop, both props running within 100 rpm of each other,  is comparing apples to elephants.

    Somebody was sniping away about hangar flying airspeeds.  Again, I don't have enough Monocoupe experience to argue with conviction.  My friend's airplane, with a plain vanilla O-320 Lyc, cruises at 150 to 155 knots, verified by four way GPS runs, which is right in the RV ball park.  The Pitts-Eagle people up in Afton, Wyo were considering reviving the design, with a 200 hp Lyc and C/S Hartzell.  They built and did quite a bit of testing of a prototype.  I can't lay my hands on the articles about the machine, of which there were several, but I think the cruise was right around 160K.  Those things were and are fast airplanes.
    I know it's simple minded, but I still think there's some possibility Curtiss Reed, and probably others, made what you want a long time ago. What they did should not be hard to replicate.
    If this is neither interesting nor helpful, junk it.    Tom Mayer

The stagger wing Beech was about 200 MPH as I recall. The big improvements
are in size and weight for a drastic in improvement in MPG.

Paul Lamar
 
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