> >> Pilots are a very conservative lot. They are all from Missouri.
> >> It takes years and years of flying by hundreds of rotary powered
> >> airplanes before the rotary will be widely excepted.
> >>
> >> This would be speeded up if only the air racing organizations would
> >> relax their engine limitation rules. For example the Reno race organizer
> >> have already limited the rotary to a 3 rotor turbo version while
> >> recently allowing piston engines up to 800 or 900 cubic inches
> >> as I recall. This is easy to confirm by calling the right people.
> >> That is a handicap that will be difficult to over come
> >> with a 3.9 liter or 238 cubic inch turbo charged three rotor.
> >> A 317 cubic inch turbo charged four rotor will be required :)
> >> The same thing has widely happened in auto racing. In other words
> >> there are very powerful commercial interest in play that don't
> >> want to see the rotary succeed.
> >>
> >> Way back in 1997 or there abouts, when Sun & Fun were running the time
> >> to climb race Allan Tolle set the all time, time to climb from a dead
> >> stop on the runway to 3000 feet race, time of less than a minute using
> >> a p-port rotary powered RV4 I think. (It could have been an RV3 I
> >> forgot exactly.) The next year the time to climb race was done away
> >> with.  Allan also went 238 MPH in the Sun 100 Race in the same airplane.
> >>
> >> Tracy Crook went 217 MPH in his RV4 a few years back winning his class
> >> and and beating half of the next class up in a side port normally
> >> aspirated rotary. Now Sun & Fun has done away with the Sun 100 race
> >> unfortunately. If the race had been held indefinitely rotaries would
> >> have dominated eventually as they have dominated car racing world wide
> >> until outlawed. Mazda won Lemans outright in 1991 and then the French
> >> changed the rules to severely handicap rotaries. Imagine what would
> >> have happened if the rotary was allowed to dominate Lemans year after
> >> year on a strictly displacement  based rule system. People in Europe
> >> would start to question why their cars did not have rotaries. Billions
> >> if not trillions  of dollars of piston engine based manufacturing
> >> infrastructure would have been needed to be scraped.
> >>
> >> All this has been extremely frustrating for me and a lot of rotor
> >> heads around the world. I personally have owned seven Mazda rotary
> >> powered
> >> cars starting in 1973. Some of them used cars with over 100,000 miles
> >> when I bought them. Adding the miles I put on them the cars had an
> >> accumulated  driving miles of well over one million miles. I currently
> >> own a 2004 RX8 with 30,000 trouble free miles that gets 25 MPG on the
> >> freeway.
> >>
> >> The better mouse trap does not always rise to the top.
> >>
> >> Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
> >
> > Some pilots may be "from Missouri," but the good ones are spiritual (or
> > literal) sons/daughters of West Virginia.
> >
> > What is needed is for all of the rotary gurus to get together and do
> > some demonstrations at Oshkosh.  I don't mean flying -- people don't
> > think about engines when they look at wings -- but a coordinated display
> > of the capabilities and strengths of the rotary in relation to the
> > reciprosaur.
> >
> > This will NOT be a "buy mine" show.  In fact, I propose that all of the
> > rotary gurus form the Rotary Aviation Alliance for the purposes of
> > promoting rotary power TOGETHER.  Show the BEST of rotary power, and
> > point out that there are several vendors and a few gurus, that it's not
> > a one-choice situation.  Provide catalogs or pamphlets from the various
> > vendors, but be there to demonstrate the TECHNOLOGY ("There are a number
> > of options, I think this one -- yes, this is the Atkins kit . . .").
> >
> > Set up a pavilion show, or create your own "pavilion" where the
> > airplanes are, and gather as many rotary-powered birds as you can
> > ("Oshkosh Rotary Roundup") with your demonstration on a raised stage.
> >
> > Yank an engine out of a wrecked-rear RX-7 (on video, with witnesses) and
> > shove it into a sealed and signed case.  Take it out of the case at
> > Oshkosh, stick it on an engine stand and add plumbing.  Start it and get
> > it running smoothly, then DUMP THE COOLANT and cut off the water hoses
> > but LET IT KEEP RUNNING (don't shut it down until it fails or until the
> > show ends, if it goes that long)!  Have a big clock next to it counting
> > off the time until it fails, temp sensors, the whole test-bay setup.
> >
> > With some reasonable publicity on, say, Saturday morning an hour after
> > the gates open, you can have a good-sized crowd there to watch the crate
> > being unsealed, engine mounted and started (this is only a 10-minute
> > job, done by two guys while a third makes the pitch:  "This video shows
> > up pulling the engine out of the car and putting it in the case . . .you
> > see that we haven't done anything to it . . .")
> >
> > While the overheating engine is running, offer to let anyone stick a
> > reciprosaur next to it (put up another clock, marked "YOUR CURRENT
> > ENGINE" to make them think about what they're running now, and whether
> > it would take the abuse you're giving the rotary.
> >
> > A couple of other displays would compare the two engine types, one being
> > a pile of all the moving parts in a reciprosaur, the other showing the
> > rotary innards.  This would be especially gripping if you find BROKEN
> > parts.  Your pitchman can hold them up and talk about "all of this stuff
> > that's not there to fail" in the rotary.
> >
> > Have a completely disassembled rotary there for people to check out
> > ("These are all of the parts to build the WHOLE ENGINE . . !").
> >
> > Print out all of the thousands of NTSB aviation investigators' reports
> > of reciprosaur engine failures between 1975 and now, and bind them into
> > a book for visitors to read.  Do the same for all of the reports
> > mentioning the word "Mazda" (all 8 of them).  Point out that none of the
> > Mazda reports is of an engine flaw or a broken part (waving a busted
> > crankshaft in the air, or maybe a cylinder with a piston seized in it).
> >
> > Meanwhile, you have that overheating RX engine running for all to see,
> > with the clock show how long it's been going (or how long it ran before
> > failing, if it has finally died).   Have a couple of heavy gloves for
> > visitors to put on and feel the lack of vibration.
> >
> > THAT is how you get acceptance -- you make them worry about all those
> > fragile parts in their reciprosaurs while showing them the Promised
> > Land!  Show all of the costs to take an engine out of the car and get it
> > flying.  Show the rebuild parts kit and what it costs.  Compare these
> > costs to an O-320 purchase and rebuild.
> >
> > If you think that the engine will run longer than a day, move up the day
> > that you start it.  Or maybe start one the first day at noon, and tear
> > it down after it fails then run another one for the weekend crowd.  Or
> > rebuild the first one in front of the crowd and give it another test!
> >
> > The main thing is that the only rotaries that people see are parked, or
> > in a plane flying away.  Show it DOING ITS JOB where they can stand and
> > stare and ponder why they every thought they were better off with the
> > reciprosaur.
> >
> > With all of the above said, I hereby volunteer to be the RAA "Rotary
> > Evangelist," if you and the other gurus want to set this up I can do the
> > planning and be the pitchman (I've done this kind of thing before and
> > know how to make it work).
> >
> > Keith
>
> Good on ya Keith!
> George ( down under)

great idea, I second it.

--
Thanks,
Brent Hasty