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Since so much as been mentioned about the "All Electric Airplane" lately--of
which I have one--I will repost a version of an earlier thread I wrote
regarding vacuum pumps.

The technology has been around for enough years now to build a vacuum pump
which incorporates self-lubricating ceramic vanes.  It might even be possible
to use a matrix of the newer tough plastics with a lubricant included in the
plastic matrix, but, the ceramic would be my choice, since it has already
been developed.

The use of graphite vanes in an era when we are using ceramics to put people
in space is absolutely ludicrous.

To continue to put pilots in the yuck without vacuum guidance is bordering on
an atrocity.

A 10,000 hour plus vacuum pump could be fully developed to the testing stage
in a matter of a month or two by simply changing out the vanes.  It is simply
a matter of finding the supplier of choice for the self-lubricating ceramic.

I have been using an electric HSI for some time now.  It failed 5 times in
the first 15 months--two of these times in critical situations.  (Not until I
started screaming threats of junk-yard-mean-dog lawyers did the vendor trade
out a new $8400 unit which seems to have solved the failure problem, but now
I don't trust it.)

With the use of shock-resistant ceramics, the pump should show a gradual
decay in efficiency as it nears end of life,  rather than the crisis failure
that graphite gives us.

I think the market would easily absorb a $2800 price for a 10,000 hour vacuum
pump--with about $2000 gross profit each on initial production.

Wouldn't it be nice to sell a few hundred vacuum pumps a week and buy that
turbine for your aiplane and a nice blacktop strip in a warm climate?

David Jones, Pecatonica, Illinoi








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