From: "Russell Duffy" <russell.duffy@gmail.com>
Date: 2006/09/17 Sun PM 08:12:42 CDT
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: ducted fan questions

All the GenAv duct attempts I could dig
up wound up ditching the duct and going back to a prop, some after
significant time and expense.

 
Hi Donald,
 
Thanks for the comments.  I've also noticed an huge lack of examples of GA
ducted fans, and that usually tells you something important :-)   I've been led to believe that ducted fans had some thrust advantages at low
airspeeds, but that they generally wouldn't work well at normal GA type
cruise speeds.  Since a gyrocopter is a slow aircraft, that lives for
thrust, it just seems like it would possible work.  On the other hand, it's
probably worth noting that there aren't any fan units out there for Rotax
engines on gyros, or pusher ultralights for that matter.   Cheers,
Rusty