• 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!

Ducted Fan propulsion

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

yankeeclipper

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
47
Location
Northeast.
Well, since some of you provided such thoughtful feedback on the question of fuel injection, I may as well put this one to you as well:

Why do ducted fan configurations seem to be entirely absent from LSA's and homebuilt's? Without having actually tried constructing such a propulsion system, I wouldn't imagine that cowling the fan with reasonable precision would be exceedingly difficult. Also, the challenges of weight and reliability of the cowling and drive mechanisms should be feasible too, given the indirect-drive configurations of many motorgliders.

The disadvantages that come to mind are potential fan balancing complications, and a drive mechanism that can handle the higher rpm's of ducted fans.

The benefits, aside from efficiency, would be smaller diameters and greater safety (given enclosure).

Just curious, really.
 
Back
Top