Rino Lacombe wrote:

Hi Paul and friends,

I have a question about air circulation through the engine cowling of a pusher
configuration.
Not having the fan (prop) up front of the cooling radiators (water and oil)
produce a different cooling challenge.
I wonder if the following idea has been tried and tested by other people?  I would
certainly like to find out.
Since the prop that I am using (Warp Drive) does not move any air at its center
(at least 18 inches) it does not help much in pulling air through the cowling.
Included are two pictures to help explain my idea,  one of the Glass Goose cowling
seen from the tail and one of the proposed fan.  The fan is the same concept as
used on the alternator (to pull the air through the alternator) on the engine.
The fan would be installed on the front of the prop hub to pull the air through
the cowling, the prop spinner is on the other side, towards the tail of the
airplane.  Would this setup disturb the air flow through the prop?

Rino

I don't think so. Nor would it work very well. BMW used something like this
in WW II radials but they geared the fan speed up considerably.
to get this to help cool you would have to figure a way to make it
spin much faster than the prop.

Paul Lamar

So  why not  just  add thermostatically controlled electric fan(s) for heat dissipation at idle?  If relatively little heat is being generated when the engine is near idle, wouldn't a derivative of the automotive solution worK?  There are already pusher water-cooled a/c out there, so this problem must have been addressed.

Scott Gettings

 
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