Very nice work indeed. I think the head count will be influenced

by not

only cost but the availability of blades. In the past its been

suggested

that for the end product the user would have to fabricate his own

blades.

I've done a fair amount of composite work in the past. But I dont

think I'd

be comfortable flying prop blades I made myself. So if the prop is
available complete with blades count me in.

Mike Wills

Mike:

After the test blades are fully tested on Paul's rig, I will be able
to produce and sell the blades.  Absolutely no idea of cost yet.
There will not be just one blade, there will have to be variations.
An opposite twist version for opposite rotation.  The shank will
have to be indexed differently for pushers.  That makes four
different blades right there.  Then there may be other variations,
some may want smaller or larger diameters.  Some may want
narrower blade chord if they have less HP, etc.  Bill Freeman
designed it for a particular HP, I'll have to look it up, think it
was 200 or 250 HP.

--
Perry Mick
Duckt N7XR
http://www.ductedfan.com

Perry,

  Yeah, I didnt think there would be a one size fits all blade. Glad to
hear that you intend to produce blades. I guess the next question becomes,
what will be available first? In my very biased opinion, what makes the
most sense is a pair of blades applicable to Tracy's airplane since he is
the pioneer in flight testing new hardware for the rotary. Of course
another advantage to this is that most of the currently flying rotaries
would be able to use these and build flight time since most are NA engines
with 2.17 PSRUs on RV type airframes. And of course if it works for Tracy,
it will work for me too. :-)

Mike Wills

 
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