Paul,
I have enjoyed being a fly on the wall reading your newsletter over the
past two years. I have a know-it-all nuclear engineer brother, who still
thinks rotary engines are grenades (Our family was involved in drag
racing in the 60-70's).
The time has just about come to begin developing a more concise plan of
action for beginning my homebuilt. I unquestionably wish to fly some
type of rotary powered craft, and it looks as though I may wish to dream
it around a p-port renesis with turbo compounding. Am I right to imagine
that I can use a 13b aluminum front housing with built in dry-sump
oilpump with this setup? projected 335hp? 280lb FWF wet-weight?
(Including engine mount, turbo compound, PSRU, and adequate cooling.)
I have been considering the Vision as a potential starting point for a
plans built aircraft, as Scott Vanderveen is closing in on getting his
four-place version into the air. I imagine this may be a 7-10 year
project for me, and am hopeful the turbo-compound will actually have
wings by then. Have you heard from others on the board how willing the
kit developers are to work with those intending to install the rotary? I
may be interested in seeking out an incomplete Lancair 4 place
considering the available hp on the turbo.
Do you have any other suggestions for an already sorted plan or kit for
a four-place? RV-10 is a possibility, but I think I would like to work
in composite.
Any sage words on where I should begin?
Thanks for your amazing work,
--
Michael S. Francisco
Some kit builders are coming around but don't hold your breathe on Vans.
Dick is making too much money selling Lycomings. The four place composite kit
prices have gone through the roof. I don't know what a Lancair ES kit goes
for these days but back about ten years ago they were $35,000.
I am getting too old and not enough time to finish it so I am thinking
of selling my KIS cruiser kit. On the gear and the wings are done.
Needs a windshield as my 1/8" thick unit is cracked. Not installed yet
but I intended to install a 3/16" or 1/4" inch WS for some additional
bird strike protection.
I am thinking of selling my C182 too and buying something flying I can
put a rotary engine in quick.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Paul,
A few weeks back someone wrote in interest of how the turbo-compound
traction drive was coming and you said the web site was up to date on your
progress. I had been following pretty closely, and was not satisfied with
the info I found on your site. Have you done any testing on the actual drive
you had developed to date?
Thanks for all your work and energy for this project.
Michael Francisco
Sorry but that is where is stands now. If you have a million or so
lying around we could go forward.
BTW I just noticed if you put the words "turbo compound" in google
our web site comes up third. That is a start. What amazes me, considering
the hysteria over the world wide price of gasoline, that some car company
is not busting their buns on the project. The Mazda rotary would be the obvious
beneficiary. Instead, and in the meantime, Mazda are struggling to get the
16X BSFC down from .47 to .45. That would amount to 25 to 26 MPG on the
RX8 at freeway speeds.
All they need is an additional ten HP out of the exhaust turbine at
freeway speeds to improve the highway RX8 EPA number from 25 MPG to 30 MPG.
Should be easy as half the energy in a gallon of gas is now going out
the exhaust pipe in waste heat in all cars world wide adding to global
warming. That waste heat, completely converted to HP, would be around
60 to 70 HP or so per car. Ten HP is only 15% of that. Surely someone,
somewhere could build an exhaust gas turbine that would be only 15%
efficient.
Its disgraceful!!!! Write your federal government representative.
Wake up Mazda engineering!
--
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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