Rusty,
you should get a speeding ticket!!
Everyone else is toiling away for years and you just slam together some parts and start it!
Sounds like a record!
BUT, there is always a "but" isn't there? :))
Of course you a right about the small 2-rotor.
I still ask myself why never any of these companies went to a pressure oil-system to avoid the needle bearings, limiting rpm??? Whether it is oil, water or air-cooled should not matter that much if the cooling is adequate. Looking at the rotors of the small engines, it does not seem necessary to change a lot in the rotor, just change the needle-race for a solid bearing.
A new e-shaft with oil-system should be a lot easier than a new rotor....
It seems these companies all get stuck at around 9-10K rpm, hell a Mazda can and does do more.
For your 1-rotor, you a right about more inertia from the flywheel, but you could keep mass down by making it a big diameter with most of the mass at the rim, inertia-effect goes up with radius at the same weight (actually it goes up with the square, if don't get it completely wrong here)
Also what about a freewheel-unit, before the PSRU? Something like in car-auto-trans, it would not eliminate the torque reversal in the engine, but keep it from going into the gearbox/prop.
So you get only a on-off-on situation which is better than forward-back-forward....
Also, it seems worth a math exercise for expenses (for the specialists on here) to see what the parts would cost for a 2-rotor pressure -oiled small engine.
Parts from any of the presently selling companies...
(Note- this is in Euro, but it includes nearly 20% tax, which one might get back)
I see, that one cannot really scale horsepower and $. At some point machining and production will cost something no matter what....
By the time the Mazda-1-rotor is smooth and idles well, it probably will cost the same as a small re-engineered 2- or 3-rotor. You mentioned Alu-side housings - as the price is now, these already buy a whole 40-hp engine..... unless Mazda goes Alu at some point....
Nevertheless, keep hacking on it!!
Best Regards,
Thomas Jakits
..snipped
What we really need is custom made 2 rotor engines in a smaller size. It's certainly been done before, but so far, no one has had any long term success at selling aircraft engines. You'd hope there would be a big push on these now, since the LSA planes are a hot topic, but I just don't see it. Rotatmax is talking a good game, but they aren't really ready to prove it yet.
Cheers,
Rusty
PS- There's a 3/8" x 1/8" x 1/16" piece of aluminum missing from the inside of the intake. I'll look in the exhaust to see if I can see any evidence of it's journey through the rotor housing :-(
Ouuuuch!!
--
Homepage:
http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub: http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html
|