All,
Thanks again for your replies and help.  Since my
question piqued some interest, I have attached my
preliminary concept drawings.  My thought is for a
fuselage similar to a sailplane, with 2 tandem seats.
Very narrow and only as long as it needs to be, but
with a more upright seating position.
I might have to sweep the wings for aerodynamic
center of lift / center of gravity purposes / and main
gear balance purposes.  While
not strictly to scale, I have 'shown' a 60-inch dia
prop in the pusher version.

The high-nacelle "tractor" version is not to scale, but
I am concerned about high speed stability with the
prop thrust line up high.  I want 350 knots cruise
AND reasonable stall speed!!

The 'smaller diameter prop' idea was mainly to allow
shorter main gear, and allow the engine nacelles to
be close together, thus keeping the overall size of the
airplane as small as possible, but small props are
not mandatory.  I am trying to minimize the adverse
yaw effects of single engine loss, and use two
affordable 2-rotors in a marketable version.

I have read a little from Jack Norris  and have seen
pictures of the Whirlwind props.

Thank you all for your help and comments.

Gene Kahn


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Hi gene,

The 3 surfaces Piaggio P180 (aerodynamics were developped with NASA)


Is a very efficient airplane (payload, speed, range vs power) with 2 x
850 HP

A reduced scale version (about 1/2) with a little more wing surface...
and 2 x 200 HP turbonormalized wankels
could be quite impressive...

Philippe
(France)

Jean Prudhomme is working on a scale rotary powered  kit.

Paul Lamar


Something similar to the Rutan Pond Racer might be a good
configuration to consider.  Though, I'm not sure why Burt put a
central cockpit pod on the aircraft.  More intersection drag and
frontal area.  It seems he could have instead done what he did with
has later Boomerang design - put the seating in one boom (the
fuselage), and have a small boom with engine and landing gear in the
other.


The Pond Racer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites_Pond_Racer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66q4awWPArM

A 400mph lap time is still pretty fast.  And that was done at 5000MSL.
The Pond Racer surely would have gone much faster at altitude.


The Boomerang:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites_Boomerang

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36314339/Rutan-Boomerang-Popular-Mechanics-Nov-96

Lists max cruise as 304mph with 2 turbocharged 200hp Lycomings.  A
smaller cabin, and rotary engines would allow even higher speeds.


Matt-