ColinB

be nice wouldnt it

only problem is that at the moment with the exhange rate the costs for you guys over the atlantic would be horrific

then you have shipping costs with that aswell

anyway the moulds would probably be the easy bit of it all

it would be the instruction book on how to put it all together that would need to be written that would be quite a hurdle

yes you can get them however there more in the region of $1000 if i remember correct

they are printed on large plans and i think theres about 50 pages

you can also get the construction CD with it as well but not the videos

however there is a lot of gaps in the instructions so you will have to refer to the longez plans aswell as the berkut stuff and try and work out how to do it all as the berkut used pre moulded parts

i do have the plans and CD myself and find them rather good what i am working on doing is remaking the moulds from the plans in CAD and then machining the patterns out of tooling block (i have the benefit of working for a composite company so have equipment available to me that average joe doesnt)

john.griffiths@comcast.net is the guy who makes and prints the plans

and samples of the plans are available to view here http://www.berkutengineering.com/pages/support_draw1.html

hope this helps

Colin

I just wish there was an Open-Berkut design (hint hint )

There is sombody working on somthing along those lines

albeit slowly at the moment im afraid

as the plans and cd are still being sold and almost certainly copyrighted i would never be able to redist them so it would involve a complete re write

i have all the berkut plans and the build cd

however as the build manual was written for the kit form to include the premade parts there is some work to do to fill in the gaps ect

tbh im gonna hazard a guess here and say that most of the people sitting about moaning about the templates not lining up probably dont have a terf CD yet either

my just recently arrived and theres plenty to be getting on with and lots of reading involved

back on topic

ill be building an open ez when spring comes

however im planning on taking on a few berkut esq changes and a few bits of my own

having been doing some reading up on the berkut

so far what i belive to be true is

the berkut isnt really much different from the ez airfoil wise

the shape of the berkut was modded to house the larger engine

and the nose and canard moved forward to counterbalance the weight of engine

the fuselage is premoulded mainly for speed of build and to keep it a kit plane

so if i were to utilize a jet engine that is really not a lot different in size and weight to a piston engine of the normal ez's then the weight int really an issue in regards to balance and the ez wont need huge mods for the size either

and if the cabon fiber was utilised in the same areas as on the berkut (hopefully the world shortage will be over soon) then with infinity retracts the ez should be quite capable of high speeds

what i do find interesting is the larger aileron that increases the roll rate that would certainly add to the "fighter jet" feeling

so could imitating the berkut in this way be the right direction to take?

or have i missed somthing very fundamental

end of the day we are in the experimental catagory

thanks for the replys

ill deffo be testing it in detail

im just trying to find out if and what other people have done to increase the vne of there aircraft so i can look at what i may need to do to mine

MS is a beutifull setup on cars and boats and almost certainly aircraft

however do pletly of ground tests and make sure your confident before you go airborne with it

well my point being weight wise and engine wise the sensible thing for me is a small jet

im a prop tech in the airforce and my trade is turbines

so a small jet makes a lot of sense to me ie gnome/T58

its been done before and its not a difficult task either

the main question is what does the airframe need to make it to berkut speed?

so what does the berkut have over the long/open ez other than a big engine?

i know they use carbon fiber ect but what actually contributes to the higher VNE?

is the long just as safe at these higher vnes if you have the power to get there?

well admittedly im not the first to do it Greg Richter has already done it in his cozy jet, however i want to take it a lil further and do some things a lil different

im also looking into the possibility of powering my jet with biofuels aswell as being compatible with Avtur altho this will require some bench testing to ensure that air fuel ratios and TGT temps are within limits

guess we shall find out

well id prefer if the wings dont tear off

altho from what i gather its the canards that are the weaker link in that issue with flutter ?

if i want somthing practical id probably also be taking the easy option of buying a ready made spam can

end of the day ill be building it as a toy first and a practical plane second

yeah im aware of the VNE i do know that the berkut have achieved a higher VNE with there aircraft so it must be possible

however a climb performance like that would be its biggest grin factor i reckon (aswell as the noise)

high speed at a sustained rate would be impracticle as fuel is limited on the ez

i belive under wing tanks will probably be needed

Hi i have been lurking around here for a while and have decided to become more active, im a propulsion technician in the airforce at am in the norfolk area

im looking to start an open ez build early next year, i am wanting to equip it with a T58 or Gnome engine with my own fueling mods (and probably reheat for a laugh) instead of a recipricating engine

i am also planning to add retractable gear to my ez

the chances are i wont be flying it in the UK as i am planning on moving over to the US when my time in the service is up

Hi im not far from you then im based at marham just up the road

im looking at starting an open ez build next year