• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Search results

Find deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Find deals on amazon
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. lelievre12

    LS3 conversion for RV10

    Just for those comparing 'traditional' versus LS here is a data point. I fly an Extra 400 with a water cooled Continental TSIOL-550C. The total firewall forward weight (excluding mount) of this 350HP installation is 600 pounds. And that is with a lightweight 4 blade MT prop. Takeoff fuel flow...
  2. lelievre12

    Defend Raptor

    I was wondering about those. I have one (really for home medical use) and was interested in how it worked at altitude. I know there are some 'aviation grade' alternatives but they look to operate on the same principles? What are the technical limitations of these devices to elevate our present...
  3. lelievre12

    Design of a home-made 4-passenger home aircraft in Iran

    Interesting to see flaps on this design. Canard and enormous stabilizer to cope with the pitch changes.
  4. lelievre12

    Bye Aerospace Electric Updates

    Probably the most serious attempt is by MagniX in their converted Beaver in Seattle. Harbour Air and MagniX Claim First for Electric Aircraft | Aviation Week Network I have flown Vancouver-->Islands many times and its only a short hop. Perfect for electric. However that Beaver can't even make...
  5. lelievre12

    Bye Aerospace Electric Updates

    I have worked most of my life in the clean-tech industry including a solar biofuel company. In that company we looked at Co2 cracking and/or biomass pyrolysis (using solar energy) to get CO + H2. Thence water/gas-shift or solar reformation and Fischer Tropsch method into subsequent heavier...
  6. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    Once the Lambda >1 then more oxygen doesn't really help "burning". What helps efficiency is the better system exergy resulting from igniting the fuel at a higher starting temperature and pressure. Using ideal gas law for Otto Cycle we can see the benefit in the following exergy flow...
  7. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    Modern auto Otto cycle now have rate shaping with timed injections preceding and post the ignition spark. Many are now direct injected like common rail Diesel to add this capability. I know my own Audi A8 with a 4.2FSI (direct injection) engine has an insanely high 12.5:1 compression ratio...
  8. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    That Dynacam is interesting. Another is the Brueckmueller variable stroke swash plate engine. US4174684A - Variable stroke internal combustion engine - Google Patents Like the Dynacam it has a tiny 'turbine' like profile but more importantly offers variable compression so cruise BSFC could...
  9. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    80HP Rotax 912 power to weight = 1.7lb/hp 100HP Rotax 912IS power to weight = 1.5lb/hp 150HP O-320 Power to weight = 1.8hp/lb 155HP Technify TDi power to weight = 1.9lb/hp TDi is heavier but not "dismal". It burns less fuel and is turbocharged so offers better power to weight...
  10. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    AC 33.47-1 requires full power runs on a +20F day with CHT at Max allowable (490F). This is hard to do. With mapped electronic ignition 13.5:1 could work as long as CHT/OAT inputs were mapped into the advance curves so ignition could be heavily retarded in those conditions. However the problem...
  11. lelievre12

    Diesel vs miller cycle

    The elephant in the room with fanciful dreams of high efficiency high compression SI engines is that they cannot run on low octane fuels without fuel preignition. In reality all SI engine compression ratio's are limited by the detonation margins of the fuel in question. And before folks weigh...
  12. lelievre12

    Seawind 3000 Safety issues

    My LA4 certainly was STOL. Its official Vs0 was 39KCAS but with the optional batwings and in ground effect it would fly slower. This helped it a lot when dealing with chop. However it still had a 'wide' hull and I never flew it in anything more than 18" seas. The comment about the Seawind...
  13. lelievre12

    Seawind 3000 Safety issues

    I actually owned a 180 LA4 Renegade amphib and from memory I think the full fuel (40 gallon) payload was ~350#. That was 2 adults and 1 kid. We flew it up to the San Juans, WA and had a blast. However the salt killed it and the plane was never the same after that trip. It could cruise at...
  14. lelievre12

    Jet-A vs. diesel

    The failure reported by Thielert in their development was "premature wear" of the HP pumps. However these pumps (Bosch CP1) use Diesel within the crankcase of the eccentric mechanism and the pump operates at 10 times the operating pressure of the VE1. For more detail see the Thielert patent...
  15. lelievre12

    Miles Aerovan

    The later G model specs for the Curtis Wright R-1820 show a 0.43 lb/hp/hr @75%. Pretty close to 0.45 quoted by others. See: Microsoft Word - Wright R-1820_1.doc (enginehistory.org). Actually these numbers are pretty good for a 6.8:1 engine. The best IO-550 today sees about 0.41 lb/hp/hr (best...
  16. lelievre12

    Electric Four Seat

    A lot of work has been done to show that the USA can run on solar/wind/hydro alone. Expensive nuclear and dirty fossil are not required. See: Microsoft Word - MillsMorganUSGridSupplyCorrected.doc (wired.com) The authors modelled actual wind/solar/hydro resources and actual US grid loads across...
  17. lelievre12

    Electric Four Seat

    The Beta ALIA e-VTOL is currently testing in flight only phase (no VTOL yet). The longest flight to date is 2 hours 2 minutes and 205 miles. Beta’s fully electric Alia aircraft achieves 200+ mile test flight - evtol.com . Target range is 250 nautical miles including a VTOL liftoff/land. They...
  18. lelievre12

    Miles Aerovan

    Hard to argue. The AN2 is a lot lot lot of plane for around $100K. I was watching this video of them in Switzerland on a farm paddock mown to make a temporary grass strip. I measured the length on Google Maps and it is only 900 feet. Quite amazing for a huge beast to fly in and out of that...
  19. lelievre12

    Miles Aerovan

    To be fair, the 'museum' was given a crashed airplane then stored in a French barn for years. Here is the quote "One (N376LC) survives dismantled awaiting restoration at a museum at Biscarrosse in France. This aircraft was involved in an accident at Breuil, Loir-et-Cher in France on 25 June...
  20. lelievre12

    Jet-A vs. diesel

    If your Gazaile uses an older Diesel engine with a VE pump (~3000 psi) or Pump Duse then these pumps will run OK on Jet-A. Only newer (mid 2000's or later) common rail engines that use the high pressure pumps (~25,000psi) have issues with Jet-A. These pumps either require surface hardening...
Back
Top