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Arnold AR-6 cooling inlet design

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gschuld

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
438
Location
Toms River, New Jersey
I am interested in the cooling inlet design concept on the AR-6. It seems to be fairly unique in that the inlet shape does not project forward from the otherwise smoothly convex rounded shape of the cowl. It also allows for a continuous joint between the upper and lower cowl sections from the firewall right to the spinner. The inlet is entirely in the lower cowl section. This allows an inlet diffuser design to be built directly into to the lower cowl section and can be connected to a sealed hard plenum easily. This setup allows the upper cowl to be removed without disturbing the cooling system at all. It's a handy design maintenance/convenience wise. The shape is apparently quite effective at it's optimized speed range(250mph+). I am curious to hear comments as to whether this type of cowling/inlet design could be successful on a high cruise speed lightweight two place plane with a similar engine size and air inlet size requirements. Of course, sufficient cooling would be important for both ground operation and climb as well as cruise speed in my application, but I do intend to utilize an augmented cooling system to help out. The AR-6 has a pretty dramatic angle from the spinner to the max engine width as evident in the 2nd racing picture. My prop hub will not be nearly as long, and I will have a max angle of just short of half of what is on the AR-6, much more conventional. Anyway, how useful could this overall cowling shape/inlet concept be in my application?

George

AR-6primerfrontcua.jpg


 
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