It’s a new month and I’ve made some good progress. I’m still in education mode and haven’t actually played with the composites yet, but I’ve placed an order with Wicks for a practice kit the RAF sells. I also purchased a book on composite construction. I’m hoping to learn a little more about Vacuum bagging and what that is all about. I’ve heard the technique can provide a reduction in weight and increase the efficiency and strength of layups.
COMPOSITE PRACTICE KIT & BOOK (CK) $49.95
Now available an introductory kit
to answer your questions concerning composite aircraft. The kit consists of a
book and sample materials, or purchase the book separately. The book "Moldless Composite Sandwich Homebuilt Aircraft
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describing how the material is applied, education on the materials, tools required,
inspection and repair methods. Sample materials include: foam (2 types), epoxy,
glass bubbles, flock, peel ply, wire for hotwire saw, etc. Written
by Rutan Aircraft Factory.
UNDERSTANDING AC COMPOSITES (UAC-1) $29.95
Written by Zeke Smith. Provides basic understanding of composite technology prior to commencing a composite project. Describes Rutan moldless techniques, elementary theories of beams and sandwich structures, as well as vacuum bagging techniques for the homebuilder.
I’ve spent most of my Cozy time this month reading the newsletters. The time required to read them all is much more than I had anticipated. I’ve put almost 30 hours into reading these newsletters since my last website update. I’m presently on newsletter #72 of #84. I’ve been reading chronologically so that it makes more sense to me and it’s been very entertaining watching the evolution of the community and the technology. I’ve been introduced to guys named Vance and engine developments sponsored by NASA which I’ll comment on later. I’ve watched the internet become part of the community also and really take off right around 1995.
It was interesting to note the early concerns by Nat and others on the quality of information being published. I’ve since signed up for Marc’s email list and must agree there is quite a wide variety of opinions in the email messages. One of the more interesting things to come out this month was the Cozy builders map that came out on Marc’s web site. I was surprised to learn of so many builders in this area. I guess I should not have been surprised considering the influence that Oshkosh must have on the nearby communities. Aside from the opinions, I’ve made a few contacts through the list including contacting a local builder who actually wrote into the newsletter a few years ago. He’s on a business trip as I write this. We’ve emailed and discussed getting together with the local EAA chapter 129 here in Bloomington/Normal. As for the opinions, I’ve never been more convinced to stick to the plans.
Last month I ordered the “Building Rutan Composites” video and have since watched it three
times. When I watched it I remembered seeing the faces of Rutan
and Melville when I was 11 or 12 in
I’m really anxious to start building. The learning is talking longer than I anticipated and it’s going to take me another month to finish the rebuild on the suspension on the Beemer. I’ve removed all the core rear suspension components and found several blown out bushings. I’ve decided to take my time with the repairs and send the components out to be rebuilt with urethane bushings and have the metal components sand blasted and powder coated. That’s going to take another couple of weeks, but I’m into it deep now so I may as well finish the job right. I have a back room to the garage I can use to start the practice exercises and chapter 3, 4 and 5 so I don’t have to feel pressured to rush the job in order to get the car out of the garage.
There was a first flight report this month discussed on the boards about a guy that had a problem losing electrical power to his automotive engine on his test flight. The last two weeks have seen some very animated discussions on the topics of test flights, the demerits of auto engines and one humorous tangent about how to tie down a Cozy to perform a test run of the engine on the ground. I can’t say I read all of it, but there were a large number of people who expressed their appreciation for the person publishing the report.
I’ve set my first goal on the project. I’ve decided to
finish the fourth chapter by the time I go to
To finish this entry, I took a cynical little journey into
the world of engine development from the TCM/NASA GAP project mentioned
in newsletter 56.
Izzy
This journal below documents
my exploration of the details of a program mentioned in the #56 Cozy newsletter. OTHER ENGINE OPTIONS in the newsletter mentions
a $9.5 Million grant to Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) from NASA’s General Aviation Propulsion (GAP)
program to develop a new motor. It became known as the TCM/NASA GAP engine. In
this case I’m able to look up the results of this TCM project now in 2004 to
see how it turned out and if the government money that was spent actually
produced a viable engine. Ready to go solve a little mystery
with me? Here we go…..
First stop,
what is it?….
I was pleased to find this presentation
published on the internet that shows the tax dollars seem to be well spent to
produce the 5-1a-IC Engine.
“the
smoothest and quietest piston engine ever flown in general aviation aircraft.”
Next stop, some
practical questions…
How much and can I buy one and how much does it
weigh? So far I’ve learned that is weighs
about 300 pounds and puts out 200 HP, about the same as an
Lycoming IO-360.
Let’s look on the Teledyne web site and
see what we can find….
Well,
the website mentions the
engine but doesn’t offer it.
I’ll keep looking. Let’s go check out
NASA….
The
NASA web site
says:
“GAP Diesel Engine Demonstrator Aircraft: The NASA
General Aviation Propulsion Program aviation Diesel engine will be flight
demonstrated on three aircraft: the Cirrus SR20, the Lancair
Columbia, and the New Piper Seneca V. The NASA industry partner for this
engine, Teledyne Continental Motors, will flight demonstrate the engine concept
by the year 2000. They have committed to putting a new engine on the market,
based on these engine concept demonstrators, within two years after the
completion of the GAP program.”
So it’s now the year 2004. What is the status of the GAP Program?.....
The
GAP Program ended
in 2002. Questions about the status of these engines should be directed to: Williams International and Teledyne Continental Motors
Good news! According to the NASA quote,
TCM committed to putting the engine on the market in two years….so where is the
engine?
I
went back to the TCM web site and didn’t see any references to it. It’s supposed
to be half the cost. Half the cost of a new IO-360 would be $10K to $15K.
Let’s check out the Williams
International site.
Nope,
Gas turbines only.
Let’s go back to the TCM site and see if
we missed something….
They
say they have info on their proprietary
TCM Link system, but the trail of the GAP engine runs cold at this link as
far as I can tell.
Let’s see if I can get on the Link
system and see if anything else is there.
“The
annual membership fee for TCM LINK FBO Services is $240 and can be made in
monthly payments of $20. But as an introductory offer, your first six (6)
months of FBO Services membership is free!” Well, I’m not going in there tonight.
Here is something…
CONTINENTAL
EXAMINING MARKET FOR DERIVATIVES OF TCM/NASA GAP ENGINE
July 30, 2003 – (Oshkosh, WI) – Teledyne Continental Motors President
Bryan Lewis revealed today that the company is studying its options for
derivatives of the prototype, Jet-A fueled engine demonstrated under the NASA
GAP program (NASA Cooperative Agreement NCC3-515) completed by Continental in
early 2002.
"Our efforts related to our Jet-A engine
have been on hold largely due to the recent difficult business environment and
the resulting need to prioritize our R&D programs,” Lewis said. "We
also question whether or not the 200-horsepower configuration of the prototype
engine is the best for initial market introduction. There is a lot of potential
interest in the 300-375 horsepower range and the engine configuration to
address that range would benefit greatly from the experience we have gained
from our work with the prototype configuration."
Accordingly, Continental has begun to visit potential OEM launch
customers to determine their interest in a Jet-A fueled engine in the 300-400
horsepower category. The company is also conducting further tests of the GAP
engine at their
That’s a disappointment. What
working family man can afford an airplane that needs a 400 horsepower engine?
Not many. I guess I though the point was to produce something that was
affordable. You won’t be selling any in
Oh well. Guess I’ll be
using a Lycosaurus like my great grandparents and
their parents did.
I found this from
the TCM Spokesperson…
"We believe the results of our efforts on the NASA GAP
program clearly demonstrated the
viability of the engine for production applications,” Lewis continued.
"Our efforts now will be focused on where Jet-A products may fit within
our other product lines and technology efforts."
So what other possible reasons
are they are dumping it….the FADEC. Can’t sell those on a plane that doesn’t need it.
Teledyne Continental
Motors and Honda Motor Co. announced, in March 2003, a joint feasibility
study for developing a new family of four-stroke cycle HOAE. These engines have
liquid cooling, a version of the TCM/Aerosance PowerLink FADEC engine-control system, and the ability to
run on either 93-octane unleaded auto fuel or 100LL aviation fuel. A prototype
four-cylinder engine, rated at 225hp, has been running for about two years and
recently completed flight testing (in an unspecified aircraft) up to 17,500 ft.
TCM and Honda have said that the engine family could be built in various sizes
and numbers of cylinders from 4000cc to 9000cc (the range of all current TCM
production engines except the O-200 family). References are FM6/03 and SA4/03,
9/03. A more recent source (KP1/04) gives the displacement as 370 cu. in., so
limited information is given below under Continental-Honda OL-370 in
Continental Part 2: O-315 through OL-1430.
OL-240 (2-S
Diesel) -- {4.25 / 4.25 / 241.2} / {108.0 / 108.0 / 3952}
This engine is an important new development funded
jointly by TCM and NASA under the Advanced General Aviation Transport
Experiments (AGATE) consortium. The 1996 General Aviation Propulsion (GAP)
initiative led to this engine, a turbocharged compression-ignition (Diesel)
type designed to run on direct injection of Jet-A fuel. It was designed to run
at a constant 2200 rpm with noise reduction and fuel efficiency as major design
goals. Another design objective was a weight similar to that of a 360 cu.in. four-stroke cycle gasoline
engine; i.e., about 300# (see Continental O-360, Franklin O-350, and Lycoming
O-360). Experience with the Perkins Diesel Co. (see Continental O-201 (2-S
Diesel)) presumably played a role in its development. The NASA contract was completed, but further development by TCM was
discontinued.
4cyl; GAP;
200hp@ 2200rpm; 1996-2001; Wt = ~300#; TC = none.
SA6/00; TCM Web site under News
Turbocharged, direct-drive, liquid-cooled, two-stroke diesel engine.
Applications: (US) Cessna 337 testbed.
And the original
questions….Weighs about 300 pounds and puts out 200 HP. TCM discontinued it in
favor of other markets.
Bummer.