IMHO this is a major breakthrough in cutting the work required
to install a liquid cooled engine. This has far reaching
implications for the acceptance of the rotary.

A rad installation like this could take as little as two hours.
The stock oil cooler could be added along side the rad.

The the interior of the cowl is opened up with far more room to
work on the engine and accommodate mufflers under the engine.

All you need add to this illustration is side plates.

The angle of the rad can be adjusted up and down to decrease
or increase the cooling effect.

Will work for pusher and tractor.


This is a brilliant idea on whoever thought it up.
Good thinking outside of the box. Literally :)
Brilliant! brilliant! Brilliant!

IMHO this will become the cooling system of choice.

Paul Lamar

  This would also appear to do away with the need for cowl

flaps - can use

cowl flap lever to adjust radiator angle.  Perhaps just

have a rod connected

to the front of the radiator, poking up through the floor

board, so when you

push the throttle in you can also "step on it" (the rod)

further lowering

the radiator for more cooling {:>).

Certainly looks interesting and simple, who will be the

first to try it ??

Ed Anderson

Good idea Ed.

BTW I am really jazzed on this rad location. This removes many of the
objections to liquid cooling systems. Simple cheap and easy
to make and install.
Again: The rad IS the scoop, the duct and the diffuser.

Paul Lamar

This setup has been used on the Zenith Zodiac 601 series (Chris Heintz design) 
since around '93 with no problems.  The engine in that app is a Rotax 912, and
 they use a VW Rabbit radiator.  As you say, it's basically the radiator 
itself which forms the bottom of the scoop, with a couple of sheet pieces 
to form sides and end.

The only drawback is that it's pretty draggy, and users report that it creates 
a rumble under the floorboards.  Ironically, the move among builders has been 
to bury the radiator in the cowling now.

I have a 601 myself, but as it was my first plane, I bowed to peer pressure 
and put an o-200 in it.  The next project will have a rotary!

Grant Schemmel

How did I miss that for so long? I doubt it is "pretty draggy".
I'll bet lots of money that two identical airplanes, one with rad in
the cowl and one with this rad arrangement will have similar drag 
characteristics. Furthermore the airplane with the rad under the fuselage
with have a slicker more streamlined cowl with better prop efficiency.

The rumble I can buy. Perhaps it needs a boundary layer bypass
as the original P51 duct san boundary layer bypass also rumbled.

BTW a boundary layer bypass with this design works better with less drag
than a boundary layer bypass around an internal P51 type duct as simple
spacers can be used letting the boundary layer drift straight back.


Paul Lamar
 
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