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Posted
11 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I thought they had them  there also Based on racing outboard engines. Nev

A racing Wankel and an aircraft engine are both constant load engines, but the Wankel power band is up too high for an aircraft.

You could use a prop reduction gear but that starts to add the weight that was the purpose for going there in the first place, and you have the issue that the seals are consumables, and you can't do a seal change in the sky.

Posted

They use reductions from auto transmissions, sun and planetary and are considered reliable relating to two and four strokes. (Between the two) They are considered that if they start they will get you home. The seals don't FAIL suddenly and nothing else comes poking out the side. like pistons do.  They are hard to silence (Like a 2 stroke). Nev

Posted
1 hour ago, facthunter said:

They use reductions from auto transmissions, sun and planetary and are considered reliable relating to two and four strokes. (Between the two) They are considered that if they start they will get you home. The seals don't FAIL suddenly and nothing else comes poking out the side. like pistons do.  They are hard to silence (Like a 2 stroke). Nev

In my RX2 I could pull the engine out and rebuild it with a new set of seals over a weekend, so I wouldn't call them reliable.  We have a big sealing advantage with a circular combustion chamber seal because we can use steel rings. The Wankel has to seal at 90 degrees, so our seal needs to do a couple of 90 degree turns. At light loads or intermittant loads the silicon seals are not overheated, but at constant hard load, such as a country drive into the wind at high speed the seals would usually burn out by the end of the trip with the engine still running, as you said, but the car would be covered in steam if stopped at a set of traffic lights. There was very little power below 4,000 rpm, but the car would spin the wheels at 160 km/hr and cruise at 209 km/hr.

Posted

 

On 29/04/2021 at 12:44 PM, eightyknots said:

How long does it take to pump per litre

Just looked up the specs... says up to 300l/hr. I used to pump from 60l drums. Don't recall it being terribly slow but it was a long time ago and so not crystal clear in memory. Beats hand pumping!

Posted
On 29/04/2021 at 12:32 PM, facthunter said:

Jack, you are right. Do we need to start a more basic show (Once again). We'd probably get the same opposition as the basic stuff did in the 60's.  Nev

Trust me, I am working on it......there IS some under the radar interest 🙂

 

  • Like 1
Posted
6 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Sshuuss

Don,t get caught !.

spacesailor

An FAR Part 103 forum 🙂

Posted
1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

Can Fat fella,s fly ' part 103 '.

spacesailor

Yes,  Part 103 in the US is restricted to a fuel capacity of 5 U.S. gallons max.

You will just have to fill only with a gallon or two 🙂 

Posted

Same fuel capacity as the Hummel Bird, 

But

 The max speed of 140mph is a little too much. LoL

spacesailor

  • 1 month later...
Posted

This new video is a bit long winded but densely argued and well made. (You could skip the first 5 mins which is just getting the basics out of the way.)

 

 

 

Posted
8 minutes ago, Garfly said:

This new video is a bit long winded but densely argued and well made. (You could skip the first 5 mins which is just getting the basics out of the way.)

 

 

 

 

 

What a coincidence, I was watching this very clip at the moment you posted this link

  • Agree 1
Posted
22 minutes ago, Garfly said:

This new video is a bit long winded but densely argued and well made. (You could skip the first 5 mins which is just getting the basics out of the way.)

 

 

 

Heh, Yep!...The first five minutes is politics..😏

 

 

 

 

.

Posted

RAAus should get ahead of the game and examine and evaluate electric. It will be a quantum leap in better safety eventually. Nev

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Posted

PBS in the USA just ran a fantastic Electric Aircraft Doco.

 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/great-electric-airplane-race/

The feature Doco is blocked outside of the US due to geographical restrictions so you can only access it using a VPN located in the US, a TOR browser etc. if you are watching outside of the USA.

 

This Doco is really an accurate snapshot on the state of the industry from what I can work out, it was very well done and has lots of really interesting information

 

  • Informative 1
Posted (edited)

Yep, great things them electric aircraft/vehicles/bikes. I were once very keen on em, even got one of them 2 wheel stand up scooter thingys. 11’ Wheels, 2 motors and will do ninety so I’m told... But, electric motor transport do have its problems. I think it prudent to wait a while before getting too ‘invested’ in the game. Let the crash test dummies work out the faults first.

 

One thing I note when yer see vids on Tesla’s they always say just how simple the electric motors are compared to the ‘complex’ piston motors... except, them Tesla’s is not simple. One needs to consider the entire system requirements to get that Tesla to move. There is a lot of cooling plumbing, pump, and electrical connections involved in getting that Tesla to move and any one failure point of the thousands of connections can bring the plot undone.

 

Theres a lot of crap in the “Why Electric Planes are Inevitably Coming” video. And one claim is of simple servicing. I can just see the local aircraft engineer trying to annual or trouble shoot the battery pack with all its battery’s, soldered connections, wires, and cooling pipes... yeah, right..😏

 

At any rate the charging power for the aircraft will likely be coal. So a better name for the aircraft would be a coal powered aircraft..🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Flying Binghi
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Posted

The one at our airfield runs 100% off solar. 

 

The panels charge some large storage batteries in the hanger and the plane gets charged off those batteries DC to DC.

 

When the plane is out flying the batteries are still charging in the hanger for the next recharge.  Simples

  • Like 2
Posted
5 hours ago, Flying Binghi said:

Yep, great things them electric aircraft/vehicles/bikes. I were once very keen on em, even got one of them 2 wheel stand up scooter thingys. 11’ Wheels, 2 motors and will do ninety so I’m told... But, electric motor transport do have its problems. I think it prudent to wait a while before getting too ‘invested’ in the game. Let the crash test dummies work out the faults first.

 

One thing I note when yer see vids on Tesla’s they always say just how simple the electric motors are compared to the ‘complex’ piston motors... except, them Tesla’s is not simple. One needs to consider the entire system requirements to get that Tesla to move. There is a lot of cooling plumbing, pump, and electrical connections involved in getting that Tesla to move and any one failure point of the thousands of connections can bring the plot undone.

 

Theres a lot of crap in the “Why Electric Planes are Inevitably Coming” video. And one claim is of simple servicing. I can just see the local aircraft engineer trying to annual or trouble shoot the battery pack with all its battery’s, soldered connections, wires, and cooling pipes... yeah, right..😏

 

At any rate the charging power for the aircraft will likely be coal. So a better name for the aircraft would be a coal powered aircraft..🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Sigh, here we go again with the ' it'll  be powered by coal anyway' argument. Look to the future- do you think there will be more coal power, or less? It's a confusing statement too. If you are for renewable energy, you would be dismayed about the idea that seemingly all power generated in the future is from coal. If you love coal, then you should be happy that all electric vehicles will be exclusively powered by coal. In fact, you would lobby the government to make sure absolutely everything is electric powered so you can burn more of that lovely coal.

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Posted (edited)

UNLESS

We go Nuclear! .

A Very stable continent, not like England with hundreds of miner earthquakes annually. 

Is Calder Hall still working? . 

spacesailor

Edited by spacesailor
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Posted

Coal is dead. It is just that some just keep propping the corpse up. They look to China & India who are still building coal fired power stations. These are interim solutions to deal with their current problems but both countries have invested massively in renewables far in excess of Australia. Germany & the UK will not build any more nuclear facilities & the existing ones will close at the end of their life. Calder Hall was the worlds first nuclear power station in 1956 but was decommissioned in 2003 and has now been completely emptied of fuel.

 

Banks and venture capitalists will not invest in anything coal any more. Everyone in the coal industry knows it but the fossil fuel dinosaurs funding the Libs & Nats keep pushing the dead horse & they will do so until they run out of money or change. Renewables are the future and we don't need gas either. Every motor vehicle manufacturer in the world is getting into the EV revolution. There is huge progress in Aviation as well. Short haul electric passenger aircraft is already possible with current technology and electric trainers have been around for 5 years and getting better all the time.

 

The argument that EVs are created with fossil fuels is only true of the present as we have yet to transition fully. They are now producing steel in Germany without coal. Industry, the Australian public & the States especially SA are forging ahead despite the poor attitude of Morrisons mob who can only see the future as far as the next election..

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Posted
1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

Coal is congealed solar energy. More or less, it is all the same.

Everything is from solar energy.  Strangely enough, I'd rather eat vegetables which are concentrated solar energy and cows, which eat other vegetation which is concentrated solar energy, than lumps of coal.

So why not leave the coal in the ground and get the solar energy straight from the source?

  • Like 2

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