Yes, Ron was one of the early pioneers of the Rotary along with Neil Kruiswyk in his Lancair 235, Terry Adams and his Throp T-18  and a number of others. Some got airborne with their rotary and many did not.  None I know of ever got their installation sorted out well enough that you would call it a truly going concern.   I know Ron flew a number of flights and some of you had the good fortunate to undoubtedly be the first passenger in a  rotary powered aircraft.  Ron (as pioneers frequently do) had one incident where his coolant went amiss and he pretty much cooked his engine but made it back safely.  From photos I saw of one of his intake, it was a series of short aluminum tubes clamped together every 4-5 “ with hose and clamps.  Not certain what performance he got with that set up.  He like many of us using the Ross drive eventually found it deficient – one reason we fly with Tracy’s and one reason Tracy designed his own.

 

Unfortunately, back in those days, there was no e mail list such as we now enjoy – so that these early pioneers could not easily contact each other and assist and share knowledge – I mean there are many reasons these guys are called pioneers.  Heck, I didn’t know there was a Tracy Crook, until his photo appear on the cover of KITPLANE back in 1995.   But, despite the  efforts of these early pioneers, in my opinion, Tracy Crook garners the honor of showing that the rotary was a viable aircraft power plant, flying now for over 15 years and likely approaching 1800 – 2000 hours of rotary time probably having carried dozens of passengers in his Rv-4 Otter. 

 

We are fortunate to have so many on this list with so much expertise in so many areas to aid us in safely and quickly get our rotary powered aircraft airborne.

 

Thanks Pioneers

 

Ed