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From: "George Lendich" <lendich@optusnet.com.au>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-1619120@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] EAA 782 meeting
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 08:26:29 +1000
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Kevin,
Yep! there's a lot of truth to what you say about the Ford units- but who 
knows what abuse their getting.
There is a lot of discussion on the other site with PL supporting the Ford 
units, a lot of outrageous HP numbers quoted, but Tracy knows the score, as 
do a lot of others.
The Bell helicopter planetary is being discussed with possibilities for 
higher HP , the Mistral is just great - but expensive!
I think Tracy suggests up to 250 hp for his unit and the Mistral suggests 
300 hp limit. These limits are for a reason and that's to keep in under the 
failure point for a reasonable life expectancy.

I have no doubt the dodge is a bit better (maybe a lot better) but it has to 
be fitted to a PSRU fairly easily and has to be the right ratio - 3:1 isn't 
the right ratio for most people, also most people aren't machinists.
The bottom line is that I haven't seen one perfect planetary set-up for a 
PSRU yet - we live in hope !
BTW the Ford unit is well and truly good enough for the single rotary, which 
I'm hoping to complete one day.
George ( down under)

>I attended the 782 meeting tonight.  Ken Welter talked of his rotary 
>powered Coot experiences.  at some point I realized that he wasn't just 
>some hp nut with his nitrous powered 13B (putting out 300hp to get up on 
>step, gross weight up to 3200lbs).  with his machinist profession, racing 
>experience, gutsy experimenting, and many stories of surviving potentially 
>lethal situations his opinions are a little more weighty than "I read on 
>the internet that....".  another member ran a machine shop that produces 
>all the geared parts for Boeing airliners.  he impressed the fact that many 
>experimental failures are with geared redrives, because of the lack of 
>tolerances they run under, unlike belt and pulley systems, that any failure 
>usually becomes catastrophic.  Ken talked about a friend who is a top 
>authority on transmissions and his love of ford t-6 gear systems, because 
>they keep him well employed.  he said this friend proceeded to show him a 
>55 gallon barrel of broken parts, not a Chevy or dodge part in there, all 
>ford. ken is working on building a redrive for his Coot from a dodge 
>planetary gear system, 5 pawl, that would produce a 3.12 reduction.  his 
>current belt system is at it's size limit and he hopes to reduce the drive 
>ratio he currently has.  I wondered if Tracy had heard of any of this, or 
>was looking at the dodge 3.12 ratio drive.  I'm not taking sides, just 
>repeating what I heard.  I will note, too, that ken wasn't bashing anyone, 
>just relating his experiences.  he has 2300 hrs behind Mazda engines in his 
>Coot, using up at least 3 engines and 2 Ross units.  he currently has a 
>belt redrive he designed.  that upper wheel must be 12" dia!   kevin
>
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