All this is becoming too much of a project for what will likely be a
 one-time event for my plane.  If I plan to do any serious competition at
 Reno in future years.  I need: a new airframe with less drag and a higher
 Vne (most likely dedicated to racing), a 3 or 4 rotor, more time, and more
 money  :-)

 --
 David Leonard

 Turbo Rotary RV-6 N4VY
 http://N4VY.RotaryRoster.net <http://n4vy.rotaryroster.net/ <
http://n4vy.rotaryroster.net/
 http://RotaryRoster.net <http://rotaryroster.net/ <
http://rotaryroster.net/


 I am thinking of putting retractable gear on the RV4. I am sure I will get
a
 lot of static from Van if he hears about it.  It is real easy to move the
 stock fuel tank outboard and add a root strake to house the wheel.  Much
 like a P51.  I will need to find a thiner wheel of some sort that will
fit.

 With Mike's skinny cowl it will look just like a P40. Van warns about
 putting fuel in the outer wing panels as he is worried about increased the
 polar moment of inertia about a vertical axis in a spin.

 What he is not telling you is he failed to put a strake on the RV vertical
 stabilizer like almost every other airplane in the world has includuing
 most all Cessna's and the P51.  When the aircraft is in a spin a strake
 generates a powerful vortex and low pressure area on the down wind side of
 the strake tending to retard the spin.  That is easy to add to an RV as
 there is already a fiberglass fairing back there.

 I suspect a lot of RV'er would like to retrofit their RV's with
retractable
 mains.

 Paul Lamar


 Paul,  It looks like you could use a ball screw to operate the gear and
 have an access hole for a manual crank on the sidewall of the cockpit as a
 backup if the motor is unoperative.

 george grimes

What would work great is an RX8 electric rack and pinion.
The motor is hollow with the ball screw passing through it.

Paul Lamar

Paul,  The steering rack is a real find. Just put one rotation arm above
the pivot shaft and the other below  and it even has a place for a backup
hand crank. Making an overcenter lock should be doable also.

    The reason I designed the canard airframe is because I couldn't get a
satisfactory gear retract mechanism worked out for the gull winged
conventional T-rex which rotated the gear 118 degrees. Now I am too far into
the canard to change direction again. It is not as fast as the T-rex but is
pretty good with only a 4 rotor in the simulator.The current beast uses gear
similar to the Piaggio 180 except that it has coil-over gas shocks for
suspension. I may look into useing these steering racks (one per side) with
a backup motor on the steering sector shaft.  Might also fit inside the
cockpit sidewalls far enough forward to use the hand crank shown.

      How much of the RX-8 do we have to use before we can call the result
a flying car? There may be some grant money out there for a flying
car.Useing the engine, radiator, oil cooler, steering rack, seats?  there is
still room to be under 51% as an experimental/amateur built. Use a little
more and it is a four place with a 4 wheel gear.

george grimes

The RX8 has a carbon fiber drive shaft I call out in my VTOL :)

Paul Lamar