"Lemings, Bob" wrote:

Paul,

Being an absolute amateur in the airplane building arena, you guys are scaring the hell out of me when it comes to adapting a rotary for aircraft use.  From what I can gather from the hundreds of communications, how to handle the noise generated by the engine, how to get the desired horsepower, how to cool the darn thing, and other problems, seem to be somewhat unresolved.

Is there a "tried and true" methodology that can be applied without a lot of headache and worry?  I need to obtain 200 hp, and I need to supply adequate cooling to the engine without creating a lot of drag with multiple large opening in the cowling, and I really don't want an external muffler hanging under the aircraft (the Mustang II has a single flap under the fuse, plus there's the drag factor).

Is this do-able in any sort of economical fashion?  I have a practically new 13B (not sure of the year- probably early nineties) with less that 6K miles on it.

Bob

Well its doable but it aint easy MeGee by any stretch. We aim to help so ask
away on specific questions. If you just want to fly it would probably be easier
if you got a spare time job and earned the extra money for an aircraft engine. 
Probably take about the same amount of your time as well.

There are some off the shelf firewall forward rotary engine packages but they 
cost as much as an aircraft engine at this point in time. Not all are completely
worked out either.  Most of the guys doing this are doing it for the challenge. 
To do it in a reasonable amount of time and without doing it three times over 
it is best to invest a little time in a 3D drawing program like Rhino and 
lay EVERYTHING out ahead of time. Or copy exactly some firewall forward 
layout somebody else did. I can supply lots of pictures on how other 
people have done it and some Rhino drawings to get you started.

I can also help by doing a 3D for you as I have done many on here already.
You tell me what you want and I will give you a 3D based on my six years
on here of listening to what other people have achieved, the mistakes they
have made and my own education and  experience designing race cars.
There is enough room in a Mustang cowling to get both a rad and a muffler
in there IF YOU PLAN AHEAD. Once you have a plan stick to it and don't
change anything unless it is absolutely essential.

Another thing you can do is buy the CD for $40 and read 500 meg of the past
five year history of the newsletter with graphs and pictures. It comes with
NetScape which has a search engine. At least one of our builders has uploaded a lot
of pictures on his Mustang project not to mention all the pictures I took
when I was over at his place. He should not be that far away from flying
but you never can tell.

Paul Lamar
 
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