JCPJCP

Has anybody seen this engine ? Poking about for new "Wankel" patents, found these two from Wankel Super-Tec. Then searching further using "Wankel Super-Tec", found the photo on a German language newspaper web page. But nothing new on Wankel Super-Tec's own web page. Obvious it is a turbocharged two rotor design. What is the red object, a diesel injection pump ? Appears to be a double ended ignition coil on top of the engine. Perhaps a drone engine ? JCP us007234374-001.tif us007264454-001.tif

DeltaHawk is making forward progress. Engine is in it's 5th or 6th generation, several generations have been flying, plus 1000's of hours spinning a prop on a test stand. Certainly internal changes resulted from this testing. Which always calls for more testing....... Along the way they flipped from a "Vee" to an "Inverted Vee" to better fit "under the hood". Some visible refinements appear each year at Oshkosh. Yes, they are taking a very cautious approach treading into the unknown. But do we want a repeat of Theilet's disaster ? JCP

I should have stated that patents are for an "Aircraft Diesel". us007373905-001.tif

Check out U.S. patents 7,191,742 and 7,373,905 Both are assigned to Schrick Inc., located in Osceola, WI. Patents show an eight cylinder turbocharged intercooled diesel. Hmmmmmmm ? JCP

While I have no experience building a Composite Aircraft itself, have built composite fin antenna's for high performance military aircraft. A neat foam we used was "ROHACELL", which is a high temperature polyimide (sp?) plastic. Polyimide is the same plastic family as Kapton, which is used to make flexible circuit boards. Can be CNC machined, vacuum bagged, high temperature/pressure autoclaved, etc. We used with Epoxy-Kelvar prepreg materials. Depending upon the density, had a very high crush strength. May be a little pricey, as it is made in Germany. JCP

Here's and interesting link to some foam info: http://www.diversifoam.com/cfproperties.htm Not specific to our application, but shows the ASTM foam insulation standard. JCP

Problems: 1) The blower was shearing off it's shaft on shutdown. 2) The "Gemini" diesel, which appears to be a direct decedent of this design, alludes to crankshaft failures on their web page. What I'm saying is that there appears to be issues with each of the long awaited diesel designs. Be it Zoche, DeltaHawk, Wilksch, or DAIR (now Howels and FTI Diesel Tech), each one has been delayed by some undisclosed design problem. Not that designs based upon Automotive Diesel blocks are any better, as they all seem to be chewing up gear boxes. regards JCP

Availability date once again slipped, from late 2007 to late 2008. Web page has a link to a write up of a local group's visit to the factory. A problem was revealed. JCP

Ahhhhhhh sooooooooo, two eyes complicates the problem ! Rifle/pistol red dot scope example is only a single eye. Reflection I can see from inside surface on my right eyeglass lens is also only a single eye. (my left lens doesn't focus off of inside surface reflection) Another one of my pipe dreams goes up in smoke ! Thanks for sharing your greater knowledge. JCP

re: "How would you handle focusing the display at infinity? That's how military HUDs are setup. This lets you see the image without having to refocus your eyes. I'm not sure what the optics involved would be but if they aren't cost prohibitive for mere mortals it might be something worth considering." ********* Possibly a segment of a blown Plexiglass bubble could be used as a combination beam splitter and lens. Have to think about what shapes a bubble will naturally assume, i.e. blown upward vs downward. This process will never form a perfect lens, but may just be "good enough" ! ********** The "red dot" rifle/pistol scopes use a convex/concave lens, using the concave surface facing the user to reflect a dot from a small LED,at the user and focused at infinity. The optical path through the lens looking at the target has zero magnification. Hence the convex and concave surfaces are parallel, with a uniform thickness over the entire lens. ********** Can one go one step further and reflect an image off of the canopy ? This may be just asking a little too much ! JCP

Take a look at these guys for a heads up display projector. http://www.microvision.com/ JCP

Subject: RE: Reply to post 'Zoche diesels' Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:49:33 -0800 From: "Jonathan Matcho" To: "John Papson" <fly_a_duck@yahoo.com> John, Replies to these mails do not make it to the original poster or the forum – I wish they did. You should post this info. on the forum. Thanks, and have a great holiday! Jon From: John Papson [mailto:fly_a_duck@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 2:16 PM To: Canard Zone Subject: Re: Reply to post 'Zoche diesels' Larry: You can look up any US patent here: http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm The following URL leads you to the tools needed to view patent images: http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/images.htm regards John P Canard Zone <JonMatcho@CanardZone.com> wrote: Dear JCPJCP, Larry Wiechman has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - Zoche diesels - in the Diesel forum of Canard Zone. This thread is located at: http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1571&goto=newpost Here is the message that has just been posted: *************** Got a link for that? *************** There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again. All the best, Canard Zone

Yes, gasoline compression ratio numbers. However, note they are lean burn designs with unthrottled airflow. Should have better fuel consumption than a gas engine, but slightly poorer than a true high compression diesel design. A lot of patents were issued (and now expired) to John Deere on this approach to a diesel burning wankel. JCP

Google "patent 5197416" for Zoche's con-rod design. Google "patent 6334385" and "patent 6408813" for Wilksch's conrod design. From Google, select US Patent database. Zoche is using a concave cup on the piston end, Wilksch a convex sphere. Wilksch appears to be moving forward, as patents are new. Can't attach JPG's of patents, as they are too large. You may need to follow instructions on US Patent Offices site to load free TIFF viewer. JCP

If you look up Zoche's patents, their connecting rod scheme is clearly illustrated. I suspect that their connecting rod is the choke point in their design, as it is so far out of the ordinary ! JCP

In the early 1980's I was working in the old Gyrodyne Helicopter factory in St James NY. At that time there was a pile (say 50 to 100) of brand new 911 engines in crates in a warehouse. These were the aircraft version the engine intended for Gyrodynes drone helo's, that gave way to rocket launched torpedos. What became of these engines I don't know... JP

Availability date has now slipped from early 2007 to late 2007. Price increased by 50% from 10,000 British Pounds to 15,000 British Pounds.

Here is some info on small turbine fuel consumption: http://www.vtol.org/pdf/2006PSUundergrad.pdf Read the section on the turbine.......... John

After listening to Burt's talk at Oshkosh, I do not believe he will ever sell his plans. It's all about supporting builders during construction. Nat's years of devotion to his COZY greatly exceeded the mear $500.00 he sold each set of plans for! John

The Diesel-Air design appears to be alive and well at Howells AeroEngines http://www.howells-aeroengines.co.uk/ They just added a little more info to the web page. John