Dan wrote in
:

On Mar 10, 4:59 pm, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Dan wrote in news:ed613966-4828-4aa4-acba-
:



It's amazing how such efficiencies were wrung from such meager HP.

Use the same design, reduce the weight with more lightweight
materials, and perhaps..?

Mostly the culprit is desigining airplanes that were relatively easy
to manufacture and also to make them more appealling to more people.
The old Bellancas were a thing of rare beauty. I'm strongly tempted
to get on as they are still very cheap. the old 150 Franklin powered
Cruisair will do a genuine 150 mph with four up.
And then there are the prewar Cessnas. Beautiful things that did an
honest 135 mph on 145 HP...

Bertie

Nearby is someone I have to visit -- Bill Pancake, who is apparently
world renown for his Aeronca expertise.

I was floored when I learned the TAS of a Staggerwing from an owner...
unbelievable. And what a huge cabin!,

Yes, but pretty thirsty. The R985 powered ones drink close to 25 GPH
depending on how fast you want to go and how high you guy. A friend of
mine had a B model with a 225 Jake in it and that was considerably more
efficient. Almost all of the wacos had good performance as well.

I'm still impressed by the efficiency and performance of the '47 35 V
tail....


Yeah, and it's 60 years old. more than halfway back in the history of
aviation since the wrights now.
Speaking of which, there are some items on the wright flyer that were
just about perfect, first time. The props, for instance, were just about
perfect for that appliaction. Even a computer and a century of education
could improve only marginally on them. The airfoil was also very good
Remember the size of that airplane and the fact it flew on about 10 HP.
Astonishing. I have a lot of texts from the twenties and thirties.
People poke fun at the simple looking machines of that day, but thye
knew an awful lot.
And in fact, while on the subject. there was a house designed at the
time the primary goal of which was maximizing energy and resources for a
shrinking planet. the Engineer responsible was R Buckminster Fuller and
the house had an interesting shower, in particular, that would do the
job with only a cup of water. its only recently come into it's own,
being used in airplanes now..
It's supposed to work very well.



Bertie