Brett & Tiana wrote:

Hey Mark,

For what It's worth, one of our RAA members here in Calgary, AB is Ken
Collins. Ken has been working closely with Titan on this design and has
built a very nice T-51 using a Suzuki 4-banger producing approx. 145hp, and
firewall-forward weight was pushing 300 lbs. This is not much lighter than
Tracy's RV4 set-up.
He has since sold the 4-cylinder in favor of the Suzuki V6, which he claims
not only puts out more hp but weighs slightly less.
Part of the reason his FWF weight is under 300 lbs is that he's using a
belt-drive reduction rather than the (better, we think) planetary unit sold
by Tracy. He claims the bare engine weighs around 180 lbs. This is the same
as the 2-rotor Mazda 13B that has proven to be the best choice that most on
this newsletter know of.

As for the Midwest engine, it is a 110 hp 2-rotor liquid-cooled design with
charge-cooled rotors. It's based on the Norton engine, which I believe was
also 2 rotors.

I've heard stories about cooling problems with these due to the charge
cooling design sending warm air/fuel/pre-mix into the intake port after it
was used to cool the rotors. If only it were first routed through a heat
exchanger after leaving the rotors and prior to entering the intake port.
I'm not sure how big a job this would be.

One of our members here in Calgary had a Midwest engine in his Storch. He
claimed it was a little on the "thirsty" side, but no word on cooling. I'm
not sure if he's still around or has plans to sell the engine, but if you
like I can ask around and find out how you may contact both ken and this
other guy.
I'm not sure but I think the one rotor engine that Paul is referring to is
the 45 hp OMC snowmobile engine weighing around 80+ lbs. It also
charge-cooled rotors but is otherwise air-cooled. Still not powerful enough
for a T-51 though.
Hope this helps,

Brett.

Hey guys enough of this piston engine stuff. As my wife says when
somebody asked her why we bought an RX8; "it's a rotary... end of
story!" 

In my experiences, with a few exceptions, automotive piston engines
don't hold up in continuos high HP aircraft service.

The thing with the Midwest is the weight includes PSRU and
starter/alternator so the firewall forward can come in less than 200
pounds. Quite a bit less as I understand it. I do agree it has a few
minor design warts but nothing a company with the resources of Diamond
Aircraft cannot fix. First thing they need to know is the size of the
market so everybody send them email and ask questions.

E-mail: info@aeroshop.it

I don't think it is charged cooled in the latest incarnation. It does
have air cooled rotors and that to me is a minor mistake as the
cooling blower sucks HP and decreases the BSFC. IMHO it would be
better to have oil cooled rotors like the Mazda.

Here is a picture of the Midwest engine installed in an Swiss Aeriks I
took at OSH. I know it flies as I saw a movie on it.

Note the classic mistake of mounting the rad too close to the hot
muffler.

Paul Lamar
 
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