650HP Mazda turbo two rotor. Aircraft weight 1175 pounds. engine
weight under 200 pounds.
First flight at SZP. Santa Paula California.
More GoPro videos later.
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For some strange reason I did not get the video back on this.
Perhaps it was too big for earthlink. Perhaps NSA did not like it :-)
Other people got it. Here it is again in low rez form.
Oh I just forgot to attach the video. Too excited :-) Here it is
again in medium rez.
Paul Lamar
Looking good! Should be even more impressive with full boost.
Congrats to all involved.
Gary Knutson
It is like the first day at Chaparral we showed up at a can am race
with a wing in 1966 :-) That's me :-)
BTW Here is Teddy Mare copying my jack design. :-)
Paul Lamar
Several familiar faces in the photos! Chuck Hall (in the blue
shirt) behind you and Don Gates to his right. I can't tell who's
under the cowboy hats but I suspect it is Karl on the left and Franz
partially hidden behind you.
Gary Knutson
I think your right except perhaps for Don Gates. I don't think he
was there then. I could be wrong.
Paul Lamar
You're correct on that not being Gates. Good shots of Randy, Troy and
Franz.
Thanks.
Gary Knutson
Paul,
For years I've fantasized about doing a believable April Fools article
about a scale Hughes Spruce Goose with eight tiny radial engines,
perhaps a one third or one quarter scale. Since the real one has a 324'
wing span, a one third would still be huge.
It could be built and floated on a nearby lake, Buggs Island Lake
(falsely called by those North Carolinians and Big Money as Kerr Lake
Reservoir!) And engines with enough power yet small enough in diameter
to look scale would be impossible to find. We'd have to manufacture
radial engines along with procuring enough better-than-construction
grade spruce 'framing lumber' and birch plywood. Many gallons of glue
too, of course! And fabric covering and paint.
Of course, you know where I'm heading with this, those beautiful rotary
engines! 13-B's I reckon! At 650HP apiece they just might have enough
power at a total of better than 5000HP takeoff power and comparing it
to the all up weight of, say, a Convair 440, or just north of 50000
pounds takeoff weight...
Well, what do you think?
Mike
There would b e a lot of man hours in building a scale replica spruce
Goose. You'll need a big
crew and gobs of money :-)
Paul Lamar
Paul Lamar
