Dear Mr. Lamar,


I am impressed with your Web site especially with contribution "MAJOR BREAK THROUGH IN TAIL SITTER TILT ROTOR VTOL AIRCRAFT" and would like to join the NEWSLETTER.

Wankel engines are of great promise for general aviation, because they fill the gap between low performance gearless piston engines and excellent performance but expensive turbines.

As person with a lot experiences with Wankel type engines I would like to ask if Mazda Wankel engines have problems (oil pump - sump) when they work with full power in vertical position and how to solve problem if they exist.

In our laboratory we are working on development of a small electrical tail sitter UAV and find a lot of aerodynamic and dynamic problems in hovering and transition. We had crashes but mostly because of impropriate adjusted autopilot and unsymmetrical wing separation.

Sincerely yours,

Viktor Sajn
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
University of Ljubljana
Slovenia

A dry oil sump system must be used. I should add that to the article on the
web site.

Here are some graphics on dry sump systems.

Are you using counter rotating props
on your UAV? I think that would help a lot.

Here are some youtube videos on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ybm05EYWg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh9dhBJY010

This airplane is at the Florida Museum at Sun n Fun.

Paul Lamar