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From: "Mike Wills" <rv-4mike@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-3440538@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Heavy Fuel?
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 18:14:32 -0800
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I work on UAV stuff for the Navy. Heavy fuel engines have been the holy 
grail for 20 years - and nobody has gotten there yet. Reasons for the demand 
are primarily logistics - dont want to support multiple fuels in the field, 
but many of the developers are getting really good BSFC numbers. As you 
might guess, flight endurance is the "other" holy grail and some of these 
engines have shown really good BSFC. But nobody has yet gotten the 
reliability/weight/complexity issues figured out.

 There's been some work with rotary heavy fuel engines. Not my field so dont 
know a lot about whats been done. The Army's Shadow UAV is rotary powered 
(but gasoline fueled). The company that builds the engine for Shadow (cant 
remember the name) had a heavy fuel rotary on display at AUVSI (big trade 
show for unmanned stuff) last year. It was pretty slick but not ready for 
prime time.

Mike Wills
RV-4 N144MW

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dale Rogers" <dale.r@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 10:01 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Heavy Fuel?


> Hi all,
>
>   I just read a somewhat interesting article in the new EAA
> electronic magazine, < http://eaa.org/experimenter/issues/ >.
>
> http://www.eaa.org/experimenter/articles/2009-01_engine.asp
>
>   IIRC, the rotary has a bit of a reputation for being able to
> run on darned near anything that will burn (100 proof?).
>
>   With direct injection - just after the intake ports are
> obscured - a realistic possibility, I wonder if the 13B
> couldn't be a star platform for a heavy fuel solution.
>
>   Hmm, I've got an extra engine, and if I can ever get the
> "fly" engine on the airplane ... nah, just another distraction
> to keep me from finishing the COZY.  After that?
>
> Dale R.
> COZY MkIV #0497
> Ch. 12 complete.  ~still~ on Ch. 13  :(
>
>
>
> --
> Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
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