I must admit I know very little about air racing. There is no
such
competition in Europe since WW2. We'll have to talk for I don't
know if
the image of air racing, with redrive lasting only 15 minutes
and
airplanes so extreme that you almost expect them to crash... or
at least
have in-flight failures, is really the image we want to project.
We
want to establish an image of high-performance but highly
reliable and
safe engines for any aircraft operator. On the other hand,
racing might
be a good test bench to see how far is too far. But we have no
human
and bench time resources to tune engines for racing... not to
mention
money to build them. We are a small start-up company that
concentrates
all its very limited human and financial resources to achieve
its main
objective... no distraction allowed!
I am not saying we don't want to do it, but we would need
serious help.
Take care,
Francois
PS: BTW Thanks for animating such an interesting newsletter.
Yes by all means bring the engine from Embry-Riddle. I assume that
is
the Daytona Beach facility.
All that is true about air racing but the fans don't seem to care
and are impressed anyway. The free publicity is worth millions in
advertising.
Paul Lamar
Phil Flaugher wrote:
For Francois:
Question-
Why does Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and, now, Toyota, spend so
much on NASCAR competition?
Answer-
When they win on Sunday, they sell cars on Monday!
Targeted air races would require much less money than Nascar racing
but provide incredible exposure to the GA market. I'm with you;
no one is interested in a 15 minute redrive but the redrive that
survives that particular 15 minutes is automatically credible!
Phil Flaugher--
HOw about the racing rules?
I believe I read somewhere the aircraft require reciprocating engines (Sport
class):
From: http://www.sportclass.com/Official_Rules.doc
IV. AIRCRAFT ELIGIBILITY
A. Aircraft eligible for competition within the Sport Class shall be
limited to production model kit-built aircraft, to include Long and Vari Eze
models, of which 5 or more kits have been produced and delivered to
customers by the manufacturer, powered by a reciprocating engine of 650 cu
in. or less, and capable of a 200 MPH qualification lap speed. The
specifications listed herein will be the only specifications of the Sport
Class. .....
.................................................
Here something from the Unlimited site:
http://www.aafo.com/racing/classes.htm
Even though this racing class is called "unlimited" there are certain
restrictions placed upon all entries. All aircraft must have piston engines,
be propeller driven, and capable of pulling 6 G's. Besides that, this class
is basically a "no-holds-barred" affair operating within these few
requirements. Anything goes!
>From exotic fuel blends and nitrous injection, to powerful Griffon/Merlin
V-12's and bodacious monster P&W R-4360's, to custom composite airframes and
highly modified WWII fighters. These are without a doubt Reno's "Big Guns"
and air speeds often exceed 500 MPH on portions of the 9.128 mile race
course.
____________________________________________________________
I guess you could push it and call our Rotary a "rotary piston" but first, I
would hate to have to use the p-word in conjunction with a Rotor, second I
think it would be very interpretable. Besides to come up with Rotary engines
to pull reliably (a couple of 15 min races) a couple thousand horses
wouldn't be a small task.
The Sport class is pretty clear by definition, though I think they would be
very flexible in re-writing these rules. I understand one guy got a waiver
to use a 720 Lycoming. The 650 cu in. where put there as a number, but no
one immagined that anyone would use a bigger engine in this class!
I just hope they change the rules for Formula One sometime.
To make these old Continentals go takes now quite a bit money! - Totaly
contrary to the reason why they initially limited the power plant to that
model!!
I would say it would be way better and cheaper to just limit the engine size
by displacement (even if they put a penalty on rotaries like it is the case
in some road/street racing classes), limit manifold pressure (so if you want
to turbo or supercharge okay, but with limited pressure
out-of-mind-super-expensive systems won't make sense), maybe prop rpm, etc.
Let go on the fixed gear rule (most people find out anyway that at this size
fixed gear has the better benefits) so if someone wants to make a slick
rocket......
Pilot position free as well, no matter if the pilot wants to lay on his
belly - so be it, as long as he can see his competition...
Allow constant speed or adjustable props with more than 2 blades. No need to
limit these things anymore. These are single purpose machines. Builders will
always try to keep it simple, besides if someone comes up with a more
efficient multiblade prop, why not. Weight considerations will limit too
exotic systems.
Evolution should be on the leading edge of racing, not ancient concepts (as
well thought out as they might have been when they where conceived... half a
century ago)
Concerning MRE engines and racing:
I'd rather follow Francois's thought. Once established on the market, racing
may very well be a good marketing and development tool, but no one will buy
a plane with "the engine no one knew until it blew up in Reno!!" Though a
raceplane might be a very good testbed for the engine, but not necessarily
in front of a race crowd or the magazine publishers..........
Non of the planes/engines in the Sport class started out there. All of them
had a couple flying in "civilian" ways before a model hit the race circuit.
Nascar, all right! Non of the big three throws a development car/engine into
the circuit just to see and hope. When they start to race they are sure they
can win, because that's the only thing that sells. Besides the race
cars/engines are as far from the production models as starship enterprise is
from actual spacetravel! I doubt you could find the budget to that while on
startup for production.....
But it is one hell of a thought ............. just imagine the sound of that
animal!!!
Thomas J.
The rotary engine is NOT going to blow up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reciprocating piston engines blow up. Not rotaries!!!!!!!!!! :)
The drag racers are getting 800 HP out of a 13 B and 1200 HP out of
a 20B. Nobody so far is advocating anything like those HP numbers
for an airplane.
Paul Lamar
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