onetrack
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Posts posted by onetrack
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The problem is that quite a few of them don't work on the administrative problems that really need addressing, they're put in the "too-hard", or "don't rock the boat" files.
By far the single greatest problem facing Australian society is vast amounts of over-governance, bureaucracy and red tape. It needs a number of politicians dedicated to addressing the constantly-burgeoning level of "oversight" on everything you want to do.
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The need to inject oil into the rotary rotor and seals is where the greatest weakness lies in the Wankel design. Mazda still see life in the design, and they have a very small rotary planned as a generator power unit in a Mazda Hybrid car in the near future.
RotaryAviation.com was a site started by a bloke named Tracy Crook who managed to convert the RX-7 engine to aviation use - but tellingly, Crook left the aviation scene in 2013, and now simply deals in rotary components to "hot up" Mazda rotaries for car owners.
https://www.rotaryaviation.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html
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......someone spilled the beans over after-work drinks in the Gumly Gumly Tavern, that "spooks" were in town and setting a trap for a terrawrist. This news almost emptied the bar within minutes, as nearly every person in the bar had something they were running from (that's why they were all in Gumly-Gumly - about as far as far away from civilisation you could get, apart from Darraweit Guim, which has never even heard of civilisation), and not one of them wanted any of their hidden histories uncovered - even accidentally - by Govt "spooks", who were known to investigate their own.....
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Two men have been airlifted from Kununurra to Darwin in critical condition with serious burns, after their Beechcraft Baron crashed near the East Kimberley airport shortly after 8:30AM today (Saturday 16th April, 2022).
The aircraft is understood to have been on charter, with the pilot and one passenger on board. No further information is currently available.
I trust these blokes pull through O.K., but their crash scenario is nightmare stuff - on fire, resulting in a crash, and trapped in the wreckage.
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It appears the paramotor bloke talked his way out of trouble, as he originally had no plans to go anywhere close to the stadium - but a mechanical failure in the form of a broken throttle control meant he had inadequate control of his rig, and that's why he ended up crashing into the stadium.
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....of the person intent on terrorising the NES, under the pseudonym of.........
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.....exceptionally tiring and lead to RSI, which is particularly debilitating, and which stops you from carrying out many activities. Specifically, it will prevent you from indulging in your favourite sport of.......
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....cry of "HALLELUJAH!! - now I know why they call your fundamental orifice, the Khyber Pass!!" .... and with that, he slid further away down the mountainside, until his slide was stopped by a tiny tree.
Turbo, meantimes, had managed to get away from the Tiger at full speed, and hot-footed it back to the Officers Mess, whereupon he promptly related the Tiger meetup to the other officers, who listened intently.
Turbo said to the other officers, "The Tiger went "ROAAAARRRHHHH!" - and I just messed myself!!"
"Good God!", said Capt Horatio Uppingly-Smythe. "I'd have messed myself at that sound, too!"
"No, No!!", said Turbo - "I don't mean I messed myself when the Tiger roared at me - I messed myself just then, when I went, "ROAAAARRRHHHH!!!"
And at that, the mess emptied, and Turbo was left to.........
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.....a bad position as regards jumping. However, Turbo was greatly concerned personally, that his protuberance had gone all purple since he inflated it, and he wasn't in the least concerned about the Russians problems.
Accordingly, Turbo called up the number for "Purple Protuberence Problems", and as soon as the person on the other end answered, Turbo immediately recognised ........
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This is affordable flying - and even this costs vastly more than it did, when I was a youngster, 65 years ago!
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.....jumped, and what they jumped on. But Turbo, known to jump on anything at a moments notice, wasn't holding back this night, as he led the way to the jumping castles, with the Russians nervously following him. It was only when the Russians saw the.......
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The entire ASIC card system is flawed beyond belief. It was set up in response to a major aerial terrorism attack in another country on the other side of the world, as a result of that countrys war policies.
There has never been a radical terrorism attack on Australia, and the likelihood of it happening is so low as to be "statistically irrelevant".
I have no idea who gathered and collated the statistics of an aerial-launched terrorism attack on a building in Australia, but I suspect overseas figures were used, rather than local figures gathered - that is, if any statistics were actually used to formulate policies, in regard to ASIC cards.
The simple facts remain; There has been only one aerial terrorism attack in Australia during the entire aviation era, and the ASIC card system would not have picked up that deranged, bitter individual - let alone be able to stop his attack.
If I was a radical terrorist, intent on an aerial terrorism attack, I don't need to attend any ASIC-card-secured airport to launch an attack, I could do it with a drone today.
The ASIC system fails to pick up pilots who have evil intent, or who may become deranged. I can well remember from around 20-25 years ago, one exceptionally bitter business person, who was shafted big-time by unethical Big Bank behaviour.
The Bank involved foreclosed on him in the most unjust manner, for spurious and banking greed reasons, and he lost everything he owned after working for decades.
He became very bitter and planned savage revenge on the bank - in particular the executives who had wronged him. He held a pilots licence, and he said in an interview, at the lowest point of his life, he was going to steal an aircraft and fly it into the Bank headquarters to exact revenge on those individuals.
He said the only thing that actually stopped him at the time, was the fact that he had no way of guaranteeing he was going to kill the right people.
He later got pyschiatric help, and got over his mental aberration, realising afterwards, how wrong it was to even think of doing such a thing - but there are probably still a handful of people out there with pilot licences, who have the ability, backed by revenge-inspired mental health problems, to actually carry out some similar action.
I don't know how people with mental health problems holding pilots licences are picked up - or who is looking to pick them up - but I'll wager nothing in the ASIC card system is designed to do so.
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There are at least three disquieting things about the new and exciting Heron 130SHP turboprop ...
1. A requirement to put money down before any video displays the engine actually running....
2. A refusal to specify pricing, keeping it a big hush-hush secret between the manufacturer and interested buyers....
3. No indication of any production period, type certification, or other important information that potential buyers like to know.....
There's also no information as to whether deposits are refundable if the engine fails to perform, or is delayed into production by a lengthy period.
The world is full of people who have thrown down cold hard cash on big aviation promises, only to see their money disappear, with no chance of recovery.
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......which read, "Concern is increased as regardski the Australianski connection. He appears to shows signs of being a double agentski. He appears to know things and happenings long before we do. In particular, he appears to be in close touch with the Ukrainian revolterski and sympathising with them, particularly in regardski to Ukrainian aviation areas. This cannot be tolerated. Immediate elimination of the Australianski connection is advised. Our countryskis security depends on it. Respectfullski, Comrade Mordivichski." Turbo turned pale. He knew the reach of Putins power and what they did to double agents. It was time to follow the script from 3 Days of the Condor. It was time for him to do a Joe Turner. He grabbed his.......
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.....this led to more consternation amongst the NES'ers as to just what the erotic adventures that Turbo had posted, then deleted, actually were - because no-one likes to be left in the dark, and as FOMO was a strong driver amongst the majority of the NES'ers, a drive was started, to try and uncover exactly where Turbo had been, and what he'd actually been into.
The investigative powers and resources available to many NES'ers was something that Turbo had never anticipated, and he blanched when he realised his carefully-hidden erotic adventures were slowly being uncovered, which uncovering would lead to an appalling.......
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The two articles below are 3 years old, but even in 2019, CMC technology was progressing rapidly. The articles and video revolve only around just GE's efforts with CMC, there are numerous other manufacturers putting strenuous effort into keeping up with GE in the CMC field.
GE have spent over 3 decades and well over US$1.5B in R&D just on CMC's - so they're not pussy-footing around with this technology. They simply believe it's the next quantum leap in technology, on a par with the move from wood to metal in airframes.
GE have taken the exceptionally rare step of establishing a complete chain of supply and manufacturing for their CMC requirements, with 4 new dedicated factories producing CMC materials and parts.
GE have perfected CMC with a molten silicon infusion in the manufacturing process, followed by Vapour Deposition coatings that add durability to the CMC components.
This stuff is cutting edge technology, and it's already in use in current production aircraft turbine engines.
https://ceramics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/April-2019_Feature.pdf
https://blog.geaviation.com/technology/42869/
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Ian, there certainly are some major advantages in the opposed-piston diesel engine design. However, the only recent interesting development in this area, the Gemini 100 opposed piston light aircraft diesel, has still not been brought to market, despite being developed around 2006-2008.
It appears the designer of the Gemini 100 engine, Powerplant Developments of the U.K., went under around 2015, and the company assets, including the Gemini 100 design were snapped up by Superior Aviation Beijing in that year.
Despite assurances by Superior that the Gemini 100 would be available commercially by 2016, the ominous silence of the last 6 years as regards the Gemini 100 engine, seems to indicate the design is not a viable proposition.
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Bush Aero may be able to help - although they don't specifically list the 8.50-6 tube.
https://www.bushaero.com.au/tyres?page=3
ASAP Aircraft Spares list the 8.50-6 size, but don't carry it on the shelf - so there'd probably be a lengthy wait for delivery from them.
http://www.asapspares.com.au/pdf/tyre&tubes.pdf
Superior Air Parts list the 8.50-6 tube on their website. Whether they actually keep it in stock, is the $64 question.
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8 hours ago, walrus said:
Unfortunately the SF- 1600 is vapourware - a university student paper project.
Its not the grand scheme items that will kill this project, its the details that do them in: bearings and lubrication, drainage, start ers, gearboxes, little things that took 20 years of patient experiment to get right.
I don't believe that view is correct. The project was carried out in response to an RFP (Request For Proposal). RFP's in the U.S. are issued by global corporations and Govt Depts.
The RFP originator is not specifically stated in the document, but the introduction specifically talks about the Swiss Air Force and their desire to upgrade the PT6A in their next generation PC-21 fighter trainer - so we can guess that either or both the Swiss Govt and P&W are likely to be the originators of the RFP.
In addition, the proposal is exceptionally thorough, and addresses every single aspect of the redesigned engine, including lubrication. Note also, that the SF-1600 is a redesigned PT6A, not a brand new engine, clean sheet proposal, with no operational history.
Add in the fact that every major turbine engine manufacturer is now looking closely at CMC technologies and proposing to use them to improve current design engines (including the F-35, with the Adaptive Engine Transition Program), and you start to get the idea that CMC's are going to play a very big part in the next generation, redesigned, higher efficiency, more fuel efficient turbines.
One has to keep in mind, the American Universities are an important part of U.S. R&D, and are universally funded by the global American corporations, who simply see the Universities as a valuable extension of their own R&D depts.
This is the reason why America leads the world in technological advances - unlike Australia, where University research is largely done on shoestring budgets, and any sizeable amount of money given to them, is usually only from generous individual benefactors.
As to Ian's opinion of a "staggering increase in cost", it appears the second major driver of CMC technology use, is not just CMC's ability to handle temperatures of 2400 degrees (around 1000 degrees higher than the best titanium alloys) - but that incorporation of the CMC technology into turbines results in manufacturing cost reductions.
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The biggest PT6 turbine, the PT6A-68B, commonly fitted to aircraft such as the Pilatus PC21 and the Embraer EMB-314, produces 1600SHP for 269kgs in mass.
However, the PT6A-68B has a BSFC of between .518 in cruise to .583 at takeoff.
Interestingly, the race is on to seriously redesign and upgrade the PT6 with CMC's in the turbine blades, to produce some staggering turbine improvements - on every measurable level.
Testing has shown a redesigned PT6, utilising CMC's, code-named the SF-1600, has produced a long range cruise fuel consumption reduction of 30%, a power increase of 28%, and a weight reduction of a seemingly unbelievable 68%.
In addition, it's stated that, "Incorporating advanced material and manufacturing technologies" in the manufacture of the SF-1600 would also result in reduced cost of manufacture of the engine.
If this holds true for any production version of the SF-1600 (currently slated for 2025), then those turbine developments using CMC's are going to make any reciprocating aircraft engine developments look distinctly stone age.
The important information for the PT6/SF-1600 turbine comparisons are on pages 13 and 14, in the link below.
The EASA type certificates, containing all the vital specifications for the current PT6 range, are in the following link.
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The weight is quoted in the link below as "800 lbs" (362kg) and "best BSFC" is quoted as 0.349 LBS/H/SHP. This is for the "base engine".
When turbine aircraft engine comparisons are involved, I would presume RED are making comparisons to the most popular medium-sized aircraft turbine, the PT6 - which is commonly rated in the 500-550HP range.
https://red.theweblogics.com/product/red-a03-000-series-base-configuration-550shp/
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Raikhlin Engine Developments (RED) are producing a 500HP compression-ignition V12 engine, which is all-alloy, runs a full FADEC system, runs twin turbos and intercooling, weighs just 370kg, and which burns Jet-A1 at a rate that is 50% lower than the equivalent HP turbine engine.
This engine has been type-certificated since 2014 and is slowly gaining traction as a viable alternative engine choice in the 500HP range. The RED A03 in the Beaver looks like a great fit, with exciting performance.
All that remains is for this engines reliability, and good manufacturer support, to become proven. So many "new revolutionary" aircraft engine manufacturers appear to want end-users to be their test bed, and when problems arise, manufacturer support evaporates.
The technology and the people behind the RED A03 engine all come from F1 racing engines, and they have a track record in the F1 field. If they can enlarge their product line to include smaller HP engines, they just might find there's substantial demand for their engines.
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Remember there's generally a reduced forward vision penalty with a taildragger. Add in big diameter tyres, and the problem gets worse.
One positive is increased prop-to-ground clearance, a major advantage if you're regularly landing in rough strip conditions.
I'd have to opine you'd only choose a taildragger configuration if most of your landings were in rough surface conditions.
The tricycle undercarriage assists greatly in reducing the tendency for the aircraft to flip upside down when you hit something in a crash landing.
I'd imagine flipping upside down would be extremely unpleasant, and also likely to result in an increased chance of injury.
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I've met Will, he's a top bloke. He retired from farming last year, my best mate worked for him for a considerable time, and I've stayed at both of Will's farmhouses in Jingalup. I didn't know he'd bought a Faeta, that's a good trip report.
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The Never Ending Story
in Aviation Laughter
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......doubled the amount they added to their 2 stroke mix, because more smoke means more power, which is created when more oil is used, and besides, who doesn't love a huge long trail of blue smoke, particularly when one is flying at the edge of the.............