Actually, George, The RWS drive was not
just a redevelopment of the Ross drive.
Tracy basically started from scratch and engineered a redrive that was
designed to meet certain objectives while achieving a reasonable cost. There
is no other redrive I am familiar with that has anywhere near the number of
flying hours that the RWS redrive has with none of the problems associated with
the Ross.
While there is a superficial similarly to
the Ross (Prop on one end and rotary on the other, planetary gears in the
middle {:>)) in appearance, the internals are considerably ahead of anything
Ross had. Pressure lubrication of the prop shaft for one thing, an integral
thrust bearing for another, a removable propeller shaft for yet another, full
oil pressure lubrication. The Ross drive required a restrictor in the oil
line to (can you believe this) reduce oil pressure – otherwise the thing
leaked like crazy – even with the restrictor, the rear seal frequently
was a leaky mess. But, reducing the oil pressure was one reason the Ross
had marginal lubrication in my opinion. Even then, the oil distribution inside
the Ross was also not well designed.
Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to
get a Ross – because it was the only thing around at the time. Had
old man, Lou Ross, lived longer he may have eventually fixed a lot of these
issues, but unfortunately he did not and I won’t go into the situation
with his son, Chris. But, we are fortunate that Tracy took on this challenge and did it right.
One thing I really appreciate about the
RWS design is that it has a considerably different internal set up with easily replaceable
parts – which was not the case with the Ross. If you wanted to completely
disassembly a Ross unit you most likely had to take it to a machine shop.
Just wanted to make it clear that in my
opinion the RWS should not be associated with the Ross unit which many have
found shortcomings in.
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]
On Behalf Of George Lendich
Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:20
PM
To: Rotary
motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: EC2 and
Ed's EFISM - a great combination
The Ross drive was redeveloped by Tracy Crook of Real World
Solutions (RWS). Tracy
now uses the 6 planet planetary (Ford Unit) and is about the best you will
get weight wise and value for money.
There are other similar units - all have slightly
different construction, however Tracy's
is well proven. I will probably make my own, but only because of the tyranny of
distance and associated costs.
Steve,
I went with the
RD-1B PSRU from RWS.
T Mann
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