September 25th 08, 05:31 PM
To All:
In a recent thread about VW powered wooden airplanes, reference was
made to wooden airplanes that can NOT be powered by a converted
Volkswagen, leaving a false impression -- and getting me lotsa
mail :-)
The VW has been used to power a modified 'Sky Scout' (sp?), Bernard
Pietenpol's single-place, Model T powered design. (The plane is in
New Zealand and can be found by a serious Googler.) This has caused
some to think the VW could be used to power the two-place Pietenpol.
It won't.
And the Fly Baby has been powered by the Lycoming O-145 (although not
very well). Since a full-blown VW can run to 140cid, some people
think the VW would be suitable for a Fly Baby. It isn't.
Regardless of its displacement the Volkswagen engine is thermally
limited. While you can get it to produce a dyno blip of a hundred
horsepower or more, its maximum SUSTAINABLE output is between 35 and
45 horsepower, as determined by the fin area of its heads and the
local atmosphere.
I know that's going to make a lot of folks unhappy. And a lot more
will continue to insist that cubes are the only thing that matters.
Sorry, Charlie. What matters is physics, thermodynamics and
engineering. But don't let that stop you. If you think you can power
a Fly Baby with a VW there's nothing to prevent you from doing so. Of
course, you may want to ask yourself why it hasn't already been
done :-)
-R.S.Hoover
In a recent thread about VW powered wooden airplanes, reference was
made to wooden airplanes that can NOT be powered by a converted
Volkswagen, leaving a false impression -- and getting me lotsa
mail :-)
The VW has been used to power a modified 'Sky Scout' (sp?), Bernard
Pietenpol's single-place, Model T powered design. (The plane is in
New Zealand and can be found by a serious Googler.) This has caused
some to think the VW could be used to power the two-place Pietenpol.
It won't.
And the Fly Baby has been powered by the Lycoming O-145 (although not
very well). Since a full-blown VW can run to 140cid, some people
think the VW would be suitable for a Fly Baby. It isn't.
Regardless of its displacement the Volkswagen engine is thermally
limited. While you can get it to produce a dyno blip of a hundred
horsepower or more, its maximum SUSTAINABLE output is between 35 and
45 horsepower, as determined by the fin area of its heads and the
local atmosphere.
I know that's going to make a lot of folks unhappy. And a lot more
will continue to insist that cubes are the only thing that matters.
Sorry, Charlie. What matters is physics, thermodynamics and
engineering. But don't let that stop you. If you think you can power
a Fly Baby with a VW there's nothing to prevent you from doing so. Of
course, you may want to ask yourself why it hasn't already been
done :-)
-R.S.Hoover