Tracy Crook wrote:

Here's some progress shots of Bernie Kerr's RV-9A project.  Amazing

how

that

Griffin rad fits in the cowl .

Tracy Crook
tcrook@rotaryaviation.com

Yes it fits but the back side is not unobstructed enough
and the exhaust will transfer a whole lot of heat to the
back side of the rad. Good luck Burnie :-)

What does he have against putting it under the engine?

Paul Lamar

Since Bernie is building a metal RV, could be he doesn't want to mess

with

fiberglass mods to the cowling.  That was one of my reasons for using

the

standard openings (although I eventually gave in and did the fiberglass

work

necessary to put the oil cooler up front).  Always trade-offs to be made

in

building an aircraft {:>).

I think that until there are a couple of flying examples of the
under-the-engine radiator installation that clearly demonstrates its
superiority to more ..uhm .. conventional placement of radiators... that
those of a more conservative nature may feel more comfortable with
installations that have shown they can adequately cool (however
inefficiently).

Ed we have talked about this before. Dave Atkins has been flying for
years with his rad under the engine. He flies all over the country
from Seattle. I have seen his airplane at sun & Fun, copper State and
OSH. Ask Kathy Atkins to tell you how well it works. Here too is a
picture of a King Air with two Orenda V8's. Rads under the engine.
There is also a Orenda Powered duster with the rads under the engine.
Also Mike Hershfeld flies a Ford V6 with a horizontal rad under the engine
with louver flaps air exit.

  Regardless of how much better the under-the-engine may truly be, I am
unaware of anyone that has provided data from a flying rotary

installation

other than Chuck Dunlap who I believe is still working out some airflow
challenges and perhaps a somewhat undersized radiator.   Tracy's and

others

use of evaporator cores and conventional openings clearly has provided

close

to 2000 or more hours of rotary powered cooling.  So I believe until

their

is sufficient data from flying installations on the under-the-engine

system

that this is one  reason some folks will hesitate to adopted it.

So lets seem some data from you guys sticking the radiator under the
engine - get those birds flying and collecting data. Paul's about to

have a

temperature data collection system that should work for just about any
tractor aircraft and then we can compare apples and oranges.

Ed Anderson

Good idea. Ask Kathy Atkins.

Paul Lamar

Merlyn Products in Spokane WA did the R & D on the Orenda King Air
Installation & if i remember right the only problem they had was oil foming.
I dont think they ever had a problem with over heating. I will go down in
the next day or two and talk to the Merlyn people and ask more ??? I also
have seen and talked to Dave Atkins and his system works very well.

Allen Ervin
Spokane Airway Line service

 
The AirCraft Rotary Engine NewsLetter.  Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://home.earthlink.net/~rotaryeng/            
Copyright 1998-2002 All world wide rights reserved.