Vance Jaqua wrote:

George
For your belt drive from the single rotor, why
not use the Mazda clutch mechanism instead of
the jack shaft with the motorcycle "basket"
Per the sketch below you would use a lightened
flywheel (incorporating the counterweight), and
a regular RX-7 clutch assembly. A special bell housing
(an easy casting) carries an outboard bearing set
to take the belt tension loads. The shaft is
supported at the flywheel end by the usual pilot
bearing, The shaft could be reworked from a
 transmission input shaft, or machined from scratch.
Recessing the toothed pully (like a front wheel drive
wheel) put all the tension side loads into the
bearing and almost no load into the pilot bearng.
Replicate the clutch lever provisions into the bell
housing, and use hydraulic atuation.

Have you contacted Paul yet? as you can see I am cc
a copy to him.
Vance

Nice design Vance.

Paul Lamar

I would really like to know what the rotary group thinks
of the attached concept as outlined by Vance.  A
standard clutch would really be a boon to the light
helicopters by eliminating the typical belt tensioning
assembly and the use of vee belts in general.  Do you
think there any inherent dangers in running the clutch
at 5500-6000 rpm for extended periods.  Please feel free
to throw out any suggestions as further ideas or
hardware recommendations there are a number of builders
looking for a solution. In case your curious, this is
for the Helicycle, www.helicycle.com

Thank you all,

Ed Angell

Nah! The racers use them to 9500 RPM all the time. Plus you
can buy special low diameter multiple racing clutches.

I would highly recommend making the single rotor into a peripheral
port engine. As a side port engine the power to weight ratio of
a single rotor engine is marginal. You can also buy aluminum flywheels
to cut the weight further.

Paul Lamar
 
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