Ralph S Bruner wrote:
  Hey Paul and to everyone else,

  Some time ago the Rotary web site featured a person named Dave Garber.
 Dave
  built a one off airplane racer with two rotary engines.  A very different
  design.  One engine pulling and one engine pushing.  The point of the
 story.
  Dave took off from Athens airport (Ben Epps Airport) a few weeks ago in
 his
  1957 Fuji LM-1.

  Here is a link to the Athens paper

  http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/102309/new_508159323.shtml

  I will miss Dave he was a good friend.

  Ralph



 Yes we know Ralph.

 Here are some pictures of Dave's rotary. He was a pioneer in Mazda rotary
 powered
 aircraft. A great friend and visionary.

 Paul Lamar

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Ralph and Paul--thank you for packaging these photos of Dave and his
project. I was stunned at the hours and effort he invested and it was sad it
was never fully sorted. Had not seen some of these you provided.

When we started going hard at rotary engine projects, Dave contacted us and
sent photos around 1990.  We were obviously intrigued by it when first
looking at the photos.  When we talked to Dave, can't remember much of our
conversation.  But we did talk about cooling, exhaust temp issues and
problems we had with an exhaust system  similarly configured.  Does anyone
know total air time when they flight tested and other pertinent facts?  Did
Dave or Salmon or both test fly it? When Dave basically gave up on it?    Do
either of you know and at what period he gave up on the project?  As I
remember he had Jim build the engines but not sure of that either.

It would be a shame if nobody assembled all the information and compiled a
narrative for future reference.

Sure is a heartbreaker when projects of this scale are never fully realized.
The takeaways after we reviewed it were that operation of those engines at
that output/duty cycle was not sustainable and also a recommittment to build
and develop incrementally and keep things/systems simple.

Thanks again for sharing these.

Paul Lamar

When I borrowed it, towed it to Sun & Fun and ran it up Dave did ask me to limit the manifold pressure to 45 inches of HG. Try boosting your typical Lycoming to 45 inches of HG and you will be killed by the shrapnel :) Dave never really gave up on it. He just ran out of energy to work on it. I have a lot more pictures. You might be able to get it Steve as you have plenty of room in your hangar. I think I can get it to cool.  Maybe not 400 MPH but well over 300.

Here is the last address I have for Dave. At the least it should go in the EAA museum.

Dave Garber
935 Archer Grove Rd.
Athens GA. 30607

Doug Fir knew him too.

Paul Lamar