Paul

 Let me introduce myself.. My name is Jeff Doddridge and live down here
 Southern (financially collapsing) California. Escondido to be specific..
 I have started an engine project building from a clean slate the Mazda
 13b including the rotors..The only thing left from Mazda is the rotor
 housings and the stationary gears and rotor gears,maybe some bearings.
 I have a CNC machine shop and can build just about anything I can think
 of. I also have the appropriate software for modeling and assembly
 design. I make  all sorts of parts for many companies  in the
 Biotechnology, weapons, and aircraft  world.....

 I now have Cirrus VK30 project I have been building for several years
 and originally purchased a Zehbach 650ci dual turbo inverted duel EFI
 engine with planetary reduction . This was installed and all components
 for the installation were designed and machine by me....Mr Zerhbach
 spent some time with the feds and the support for the very complicated
 and heavy engine stopped. I have always been interested in the rotary
 going back to The BEC rotary designed and build by a guy named Maurice
 Brockington(he live here locally). He is over 80 now but put this engine
 together in the early 90's with the assistance of Engine Beat and Jim
 Mebber. It ran and produced 200 hp non turbo on their dyno. It was a
 very clean and aircraft looking with a frontal diam of only 18" the full
 length of the engine. It never got off the ground although he had many
 opportunities to get this to market but failed to do so because of
 control and ownership issues the greedy capitalist that wanted to fund
 this. I think he had patents on some specific attributes of the engine,
 however not sure and it's been way to long to matter now. The prototype
 engine sits mothballed in his hanger.....

 I approached Mr. Brockington about my concept and he is very interested
 and excited about my design concepts. I also talked To Jim Mebber at
 Racing Beat and he was very cool to anything that did not come off the
 self. However he is considered the master and expert on this engine for
 many different applications, he should be listened to, no dought.  He
 did not reject it's design altogether but had a hard time understanding
 why you would alter a reliable and well designed engine....I had answers
 for that but he kept shaking his head....

 My concept simply comes from the need to build the engine as an aircraft
 engine specific, light, small, powerful. Looking at all the components
 with the idea of optimizing and integrating these components modularly
 for easy manufacturing and  cost  control.....200hp plus to fit
 something like a RV.

 I have been working on this for some time and now am starting to make
 parts. I would like to share some of  this with you knowing that you are
 a real rotary enthusiast and disseminate bunches of knowledge for the
 like minded.

 If you would like to see some of the work I have done to this point I
 would be happy to show you this with the idea of steering me away from
 what would be engineering flaws that could cause expense and delay. I am
 not an engineer and make no claim to that. Like many in this endeavor,
 not to call this a dream but certainly is lofty......there is a lot of
 explaining here and I thought I would leave it for another E-mail if you
 wish to continue.

 thanks

 jeff

 David Leonard lives in Ocean Side and keeps his turbo Mazda RV6 at the
 Palomar
 airport. You may talk him into giving you a ride.

 It is Jim Mederer and not Jim Mebber. I agree with Jim. You would be
 reinventing the wheel. Mazda has sold 2.4 million and they are still
 learning.
 A Mazda 3 rotor would be ideal for your airplane.

 If you want a challenging project build us a turbo compound gear box
 for a rotary.
 That will drop the fuel consumption of any engine %20. I wrote an article
 for Augast Kitplanes about it. If you can't find a copy let me know.

 Also check out UTUBPLEASE on youtube for turbo compound.

 I subcontract parts for intake manifold now and then to NC shops so I
 will add you
 to my list for quotes.

 Paul   Lamar
 _________________________________________
  Jim,
 Many have tried, and to date none have been successful.  (DARN)...
 I am also wanting to build a light rotary for an LSA plane.  If the
 only part that you intend to use from Mazda is the rotor housing and
 misc parts, what do you have planned for the rest of the engine???
 I was intending to start with the 109 lb short block that Paul had
 shown previously.  Mazdatrix built this engine for a (eventually
 military) customer with alum end housings, Renesis e-shaft,
 stock '89 - '92 non turbo rotors,and Renesis front housing and
 light weight water pump. ( did the photo that Paul showed have
 the front cover?? , which would include the front counterweight??)!!

 The alum end housings save ??? lbs (about 50 lbs Paul??) The
 Renesis e-shaft is 6 lb lighter (source Street Rotary - Mark
 Warner) .Possible additional weight savings using commercially
 available parts include:  milling the '89 - '92 rotors
 from 9.6 to 8.7 lb ((Renesis 9.3 to 9.0) - Mark W)), and
 perhaps using ceramic apex seals for another few ounces.
 Add reductions for the counterweights, and everything else
 we can think of... so what do we have for a finished long
 block weight??

 Possible additional weight reductions include a hydro
 formed e-shaft ,many $$$, some titanium bolts, more $$$, -
 how about replacing the tension bolts with rolled thread
 tubing?? - (MORE $$$!!!).  Your ideas???...
 Paul already has the mechanical intake system parts in hand.
 (lightest weight)...  The electronics for intake and ignition
 are in progress.  Now we are discussing PSRU parts, mostly for
 George Grimmes [??? Jean Prudhomme ?] twin pusher project.
 Paul has posted ideas for
 a lighter in-line PSRU. I discussed a lighter weight PSRU with
 Tracy Crook some years ago and he thought 30 lbs was achievable
 for LSA hp range.  If we really engineer a PSRU for lightest
 weight I would expect 22 - 24 lbs.
 Ideas??
 Dan F

 Also Jim. I forgot to mention. We have a 3 rotor powered Velocity
 hangared at Ramona owned by Al Gietzen.

Paul Lamar

Dan

I think you mean Jeff...I know Al, tried to rent my hanger awhile
back....He has a beautiful plane that flies well and is a very good
installation.

I am currently in the process of casting some aluminum housings  from a
back east source to be flame sprayed like the Racing Beat copies of the
original. The intermediate housing carries a mid bearing support
(12 lbs)and the E shaft is modified to work with this. I have Vulcan
Forge working on some forged aluminum rotors (I used to own a forging
house) with tool steel tip seal inserts. Rotors a little over 5 lbs.
each. The counter weights  can be less too. All the housings are
designed by me and the appropriate water jacketing  and internal support
features address the loads encountered. All unnecessary bosses and
features are machined off for additional savings.  A dry sump system
allows for the removal of the oil pan casted mount as well. There is a
lot going on here and I have no way to put all this into an E-mail.

Just to say, this is my idea, my time, my $$$ and if it does not work
than nobody gets hurt but me. I have always encountered a headwind with
most things I do and I am sure this will be no different.  Mazda has
made a great aircraft engine that they needed to make into a car engine
with all it's complexity. I just want to bring back to it's real
job..aircraft only!!!
Oh. you asked about the total wight, looks like well under 100 lbs.
2 rotor.

Mistral is asking about $50,000 for a non certified engine that carries
about  75%  off the shelf  Mazda parts.  WOW!   Some body has got to do
better.......I have many ideas and can make them happen.
thanks for asking

jeff

Yes Jeff not Jim. Sorry.

The Mistral engine is not made from Mazda parts. It cannot be certified with Mazda
parts. Yes they are copies of Mazda parts but they must be made by Mistral
with a paper trail to satisfy the FAA. That is not to say some of the engines
Mistral displays from time to time are not made with at least some Mazda parts.

There is very little incentive for an all aluminum engine. Most rotary powered
aircraft are kit planes designed with aircraft engines in mind. The current
iron Mazda is just about the same weight as an IO-360 so there is no incentive
to reduce the weight as that would lead to aft CG problems. The world is not
beating a path to Racing Beat's door for aluminum end housings for their
Mazda rotary engines.

Based on running this newsletter for the last eleven years cost is the primary
driver in the adoption of the Mazda rotary. An all aluminum
engine would defeat that goal.

What is really needed is a reduction in fuel burn.
If a 20% reduction in fuel burn could be achieved than people would be more likely
to spend $25,000 on a rotary engine to replace their aircraft engines. This is most
easily achieved by turbo compounding. To turbo compound all you need is a modified
turbo charger and a gear box to feed power back into the front of the e-shaft.

Paul Lamar