MRE-FB wrote:

Hi,

One piece of advanced news which might be of interest:  our 220 hp
turbocharged, FADEC-controlled rotary engine (see attached picture) will
fly by the end of the month in our test Piper Turbo Arrow III in Daytona
Beach, Florida.  Our  partner Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is in
the process of finishing the installation (see attached pictures)and
will conduct flight testing.  If initial flight tests are ok, the plane
will be presented at Sun'n Fun in April.

Case being, look for us on the flight line or on Embry-Riddle's exhibit
(E21-23).  This engine will be the first flying of a family spanning the
180-360 hp range (we have a normally-aspirated 180 hp model on the test
bench, 3-rotor models are to follow) which will be available to the
experimental market in the coming months and which is presently being
further developed toward certification and volume production.

Best regards,

Francois A. Badoux
CEO, MecanAir Rotary Engine SA
37, ch. Philibert-de-Sauvage
CH-1219 GENEVA/CHATELAINE
Switzerland
Tel :           011-41-22-797 43 23
Fax :          011-41-22-797 43 59
Mobile :    011-79-210 59 25
Email :      mre-fb@bluewin.ch

Unfortunately I was in Switzerland last week and could have visited if I
had
known. Here are some file photos of the Mecanair engine taken at OSH a
few years
ago. I am happy to hear you are considering selling your fine engine
in the experimental aircraft market. Rumor has it one new Van's RV
series
is now completed every day of the year.

Paul Lamar

PS: I see you visited the Geneva Car Show last week... so did I and,
talk about a coincidence, we took pictures of the very same car!!!  I am
sure you took notice, but I'd like to emphasize the fact that the hybrid
gasoline/hydrogen RENESIS on that H2-powered prototype RX8 is
turbocharged.  The fact that Mazda is doing turbocharged RENESIS (if
only prototypes) is good news in my book... and was news to me.  It
means that, using RENESIS side-exhaust port geometry, we could get the
BSFC advantage of the RENESIS over the 13B while retaining the
high-altitude advantage of a turbocharged engine.

PPS: Too bad we didn't get in touch a week or two earlier.  Our facility
is only a mile from the Geneva Car Show.

PPPS:  Pardon me for trying to pick your brain:  Do you know of anyone
doing big (I mean 13B-size) side housings in Al?  How do they maintain
planarity?  Do they achieve acceptable service life times?  Has anyone
experimented with Al-side housings with a ceramic coating to keep
heat... and especially heat differentials... out of the part to avoid
heat-induced warping?  Could you recommend injectors which can deliver
at least 90lb/hr in real operations (maintaining a decent minimum pulse
width), good linearity between approx. 30 and 90 lb/hr, as well as
acceptable idle performance?  There is simply NO injectors with such
hi-flow specs in Europe (no dragster races on this side of the pond I
suppose).  We have found some racing injectors on some US web sites with
the right flow spec, but we have no idea of their linearity and idle
characteristics.

Racing Beat USA sells aluminum side housings. Some of our readers are also
working on two piece aluminum side housings with cast iron wear surfaces.

BTW Francois most people use four injectors on the rotary and stage them.
In other words only two are used at low power for good mixture control and all
four are used at high power. Tracy Crook at http://www.rotaryaviation.com/
builds an EFI/IGN computer with dual redundant processors that achieves
this configuration.

Paul Lamar

Lovely looking package! Any chance of re-drive details?
Will they sell portions to someone with an engine already?
Bill Jepson

I have some old pictures. Here they are.

Paul Lamar
 
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