Hi Paul, this is a video of a small twin jet Cri Cri (f Cricket) that
lives at Serpentine. It originally had two Hirth two strokes but the
little jets are way cooler.

    Enjoy,

    Dave Mcandless inet.net.au <http://inet.net.au>
<http://inet.net.au


Those model airplane jets are cool. They are like electric airplanes.
Limited range :-)

Dan built a BD5 with two of them. Something happened and it burnt to
the ground :-) The TTC now shares the a hanger with a BD5 jet using a
Czech cruise missile engine.

Paul Lamar

    Also, after reading some of the comments on the video of that
CriCri, the builder/pilot says
    its able maintain altitude @ 60kts with one engine shut down and
the other @ only 50% power!
    Pretty sweet, amazing with such tiny engines.

    -Dan G.


I am wondering if to many experimental builders are reaching for Look At
Me, with two model aircraft jet engines? A century ago, early aviators
just looked for a reliable engine, and airframe. Today we look for the
odd build and engine, are we reaching to far from sensible goals? I was
attracted to this website because it was use of a "rotary engine" to
apply to safer design, longer time before rebuilds, and cost effective
results.

So are we reaching with to many Look At Me designs, distracted from
practical outcomes?

George F. Curtis Jr.

Not me George. I am with you.

Paul Lamar


I did a BD5 along time ago, powered it with a rotax 583, 80hp two stroke out of a snowmobile. I did  not do it for "look at me", I did it because the cost was reasonable, the risk was low and it was a heck of alot lighter than the Honda.

Now I would say a single rotor would be pretty sweet in a BD5, and a two rotor in the BD4 (might just do that myself).

Now the CriCri (have the plans) has always held a warm spot for me. Aerobatic, actually pretty simple build, but those darn model 2 stroke engines...no reliability and engine mounts from piano wire is just scary (it was done because of the extreme vibration of the engines). The jets do pretty much give them more reliability. However think about two small rotaries...pretty simple and reliable.

If someone could come up with the drawings for a small rotary that could do say 12 to 15 hp each and keep it light enough,  I would be willing to put some metal in the mill and lathe to see if would work.


David Mikesell
San Jose, CA

An aluminum  two rotor turbo would get you about 400 MPH in a BD5.

500 or 600 HP would be easy for me with all this experience on the TTC :-)

In fact I am thinking of adding  a turbo to my rotary powered RV4 but the never
exceed speed is 200 MPH

Paul Lamar


The Rotary Engine free News Letter. Powered by Linux. If you want
off the list PLEASE let me know and I will remove  you.  ACRE NL web
site. http://www.rotaryeng.net You Tube http://tinyurl.com/beqqxas
Copyright 1998-2016 All world wide rights reserved.