I thought radials idling are making "bucket-o'-gas-bucket-o'-gas-bucket-o'-gas...."Huppeldepup sounds like the noise a radial engine makes at idle
x2 if the pilot's name is Bond, James Bond.The best airplane name ever:
Pushy Galore
Ditto Evans was a genius. He also built it simple so that "cosmetic" alterations could be accomplished with little risk. Not increasing the weight is very important, but the original has cowling and honestly covering as much of the radials as practical will be easier on peoples eyes. And the problem most have with the turtle deck is even though it appears they try to make it light in many cases it ends up like a chunk of lead. The VP's are composite aircraft in the truest sense as there is wood, fabric, steel, aluminum, plastic and fiberglass in there construction so why not build the turtle-deck from carbon fiber and keep it light? It isn't structural just a fairing.Nope, no way I would hide that radial under a cowling (though sadly the 5V is no longer in production). We've had plenty of threads on "improving" the VP-2, but they usually end up concluding that Bud Evans was a pretty smart cookie, so I come back to "build it as designed, as lightly and simply as possible, then worry about modifications later."
The VP-1 is as beautiful as the Stuka in the same sense.Ditto Evans was a genius. He also built it simple so that "cosmetic" alterations could be accomplished with little risk. Not increasing the weight is very important, but the original has cowling and honestly covering as much of the radials as practical will be easier on peoples eyes. And the problem most have with the turtle deck is even though it appears they try to make it light in many cases it ends up like a chunk of lead. The VP's are composite aircraft in the truest sense as there is wood, fabric, steel, aluminum, plastic and fiberglass in there construction so why not build the turtle-deck from carbon fiber and keep it light? It isn't structural just a fairing.
The VP-3's main innovations over the VP-1 were the cantilever wing and structural changes to the fuselage required to accommodate it and the swept rudder. The rest was quite similar in spirit -- box fuselage, fuel tank integral with forward fuselage decking, short fairing behind the cockpit.Well all I can say is Evans was looking for a much cleaner airframe going forward with the VP-3.