Larry,
Didn't you mention a new Al front cover?
Does that include an RX8 water pump and direct driven oil pump?
BTW where not short of ideas Bill Jepson has a list of things that will
really get you motivated. The BH is an easy one!
Do you make your own patterns?
George ( down under)

George,
You are correct in I will be developing a new front cover, initially in
billet, and if the demand is there, I will have them cast. I already
manufacture direct drive oil pump gears for the ford modular engines, so
it
makes sense to use these in any new front cover we build. The biggest
change
is to have the gear drive in the front to drive external accessories... as
in no belts. I have a friend in the custom gear business (he builds custom
racing transmissions), so the gear train will be easy. I am doing these
projects as a side line to my main business, so development will not be as
fast as if a paying customer funding the project. If I stay diligent, the
first proto parts should be on a test stand within a year, first on a 13B,
then something larger....

The bell housing wasn't even on the horizon, but Paul asked a favor to
build
him the pattern and finish machine the parts..... so it makes a good kick
off project. The goal of the entire project is to bring some useful parts
to
the rotary aviation engines that the average guy can use without pushing
his
cost into the loc/cont area. The price of certified engines is beond
stupid,
and we can do better for a lot less.

Ok, enough on my rotary rant.... have to go fix the flat tire I got on the
way to work this morning...
Larry

Larry,
We're singing from the same sheet of music.

Bill Jepson and I have worked on a couple of projects ( muffler one of them)
and Butch and myself on the BH, however I don't have the access to machinery
for commercial supply - not to mention the tyranny of distance, which also
adds to cost.

I have someone locally working on a single crank for a single rotor engine,
there are people crying out for this in the States - very simple to do if
your interested I can supply drawings.

I personally think the AL front cover would be very well received, so I
wouldn't hold back on that one.

We should all contribute to a list of potential projects and prioritise them
(as a group effort) - which might give you some indication of demand.

George (down under)


A project that I believe would have a huge impact on the rotary's acceptance
and use is provision for standard dynafocal mounting -ala Mistral- so
builders could make use of the mounts that came with their kits and don't
have to go through the worry and hemorrhoid of designing and fabricating a
new, unproven one.

By the way, what's become of Mistral?  No updates on the web site for a year
now.  I had heard from an individual (one person's comment don't necessarily
make it so, but it does make sense so I'm passing it on) that their decison
to FAA certify requires special manufacturing and traceability requirements
which Mazda doesn't/won't do so they basically have to manufacture the
entire engine themselves.  Funding for this monumental project has been
problematic.

Alex Rose

Alex,
All too true I'm afraid, I got that info from Mistral themselves, that they
at least need supply with QA ( Traceability). Making all the components
from scratch is a big task, not impossible but needing some deep pockets.
Having looked at making some components, doing it for all components,
boggles the mind. However what a great opportunity for improvements.
Larry should be looking at making parts for Mistral, Traceability is easy
enough once you establish protocols. Once the parts are certified by the
relevant authorities, the traceability is part of the Quality Assurance.
QA isn't something magic either, it is merely a standard to which the
component is measured against.
George ( down under) ex- Government Logistics Management.



The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2006 All world wide rights reserved.