EVO wing

Team Rocket has a new photo album addition to their website http://www.teamrocketaircraft.com/gall/gallery.html and I have posted a few pictures of my EVO1 tapered wing aircraft. I have over 50 hours on the plane so far and it is very stable and gets a lot of attention wherever I go. Many people ask me how different it is, in flight, from a standard wing rocket, or RVs. It is hard to describe, but we all know that RVs are great fun airplanes that can also be used for travel. This wing makes a great travelling airplane that is also fun to fly. My wife suffers from nausea and with this wing I find her looking at the atlas for places that we can fly!

Tom Martin

Hybrid

I do not know much about the Rocket. That EVO Wing looks very nice and according to the specifications may be more efficient that the Vans wing. Slower stall speed and a higher cruise. I know that it is more than being about the wing but the overall characteristics look very appealing. How possible might it be to develope or retrofit the same wing into the RV Series? Looking forward to you engineer types on the post. I personally have no clue when it comes to these types of things.

This wing uses a spar similiar to the RV4 and RV6. It can be retrofitted to a F1 rocket that has a standard wing but not to any of the RV series. Sorry but you are going to have to go for the whole rocket feeling to experience this wing.

Did I just hear "can't"?

Nothing is impossible. To retrofit a RV4 you would have to build a new fuselage to fit the wings. The same would apply to a RV8 but in that case you would have to design a new centre section to accomodate an RV4 style spar. The same would apply to the RV7 except in this case you would have to completly dismantle the wing, build a totaly new spar from scratch and put it all back together and design and build a new centre section in the fuse. I see that you have not done your RV7 wings yet so perhaps you would be willing to make a go of it...
Or you could simply sell your kit, cross over to the dark side, and build an F1.

Tom Martin

I'd be interested in an F1, but as a bigger-than-FAA-standard guy, the roomier -8 cabin is a must-have. FWIW, I would definitely buy an EVO wing kit specifically made for an -8... and I'm guessing that others would too.

You must be confusing the Harmon Rocket, based on a RV-4, with the F1 Rocket. The F1 IS more roomier than a RV-8.

Well then.... link me to the cockpit dimensions and I might just have to reserve a different N-number !

Stall speed

Does the EVO wing have fowler flaps? What weight does the 50 mph stall speed correspond to?

I received the following information from Mark Fredrick. The EVO wing has slotted flaps, not fowler flaps. They work very well in my 50 hours of experience. The 50mph stalls speed listed was at a weight of 1650 lbs. That plane would stall lower than a RV8 or even a RV4 that were flown side by side. On my plane I have a 10 knot lower stall speed than a standard with rocket and I have not checked it beside any RVs yet.

Tom Martin

Tom Martin said:

Nothing is impossible. To retrofit a RV4 you would have to build a new fuselage to fit the wings. The same would apply to a RV8 but in that case you would have to design a new centre section to accomodate an RV4 style spar. The same would apply to the RV7 except in this case you would have to completly dismantle the wing, build a totaly new spar from scratch and put it all back together and design and build a new centre section in the fuse. I see that you have not done your RV7 wings yet so perhaps you would be willing to make a go of it...
Or you could simply sell your kit, cross over to the dark side, and build an F1.

Tom Martin

Click to expand...

Yeah.. I'm building a slowbuild... like I could really afford a rocket, much less an F1.

Steven
Let me apologize in advance, but I just have to throw this back at you

Did I just hear "can't"?

Tom Martin

Evo wings

I would be standing in line for a nicely done set of tapered wings as a retrofit on a -7. I agree wholeheartedly with Tom on this.

I'd put money on the fact that someone like John Roncz could easily design a new, tapered wing that would bolt on to the existing RV7 or 8 attach points and show faster cruise and lower stall speeds. With a little creativity, the aileron pushrods and flap mechanisms could also remain.

Heck, in the seventies, A guy in Texas, named Jim Wilson, designed a new taper wing for the Cassutt racer which I had built and it was a bolt-on.

Just think, build a new, taper wing (the hard way) and sell your old wings to a new builder. By 'the hard way', I mean that you'd have to cut the skins and make all the ribs and drill all the holes as well, the way 'it used to be'. Many Thorps and others were built this way and it is still being done. What is now a very attractive, neat airplane would be a sho 'nuff knockout with a tapered wing!

I was told at OSH it is more cg senseitive?

BrickPilot said:

Well then.... link me to the cockpit dimensions and I might just have to reserve a different N-number !

Click to expand...

Jeff,

I am 6"2" and 290# and have 500+ hrs in my F1 comfortably. I also fit just fine when I weighed well over 300#. Flew nicely with full tanks and a pax larger than the standard FAA guy.

yarddart said:

I was told at OSH it is more cg senseitive?

Click to expand...

I have yet to find any solid numbers as to exactly what it does for performance other than increases speed "a little", and decreases stall speed "a little".

It certainly is more attractive but I do not see any compelling numbers to make me want to change my wings.

Better design

Milt,
You are correct in that the numbers do not show enough to change wings. I see about ten MPH faster and a few MPH slower in landing configuration according to the literature.

In discussing this with an engineer, he pointed out that when an airplane only has a few MPH difference in stall speed in the landing config compared to cruise config, there is too much wing or poorly designed flaps or both. A good example is the SX300 which cruises at 275 MPH and lands around 75. However, it's cruise config stall speed is close to 100. Because of slotted fowler type flaps the landing configuration has an acceptable stall speed albeit quite a bit higher than the RVs or Rockets.

I'd gladly give up ten MPH in landing if I could gain 15 in cruise and it's doable. I'm gonna pursue this further yet....stay tuned,
Regards,

I remember ages ago some RV builder who was an aeronautical engineer was building tapered wings. I believe the link was here on Doug's site. Anyone recall seeing that or did I imagine it?

pierre smith said:

I'd gladly give up ten MPH in landing if I could gain 15 in cruise and it's doable.

Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd do that ... slow landing speed is one of the good things about the RV series, both from an STOL and a safety standpoint.
Isn't the equation something like energy / force increases as the square of speed?

Thomas

I'll let Tom post the actual numbers, but I believe the stall speed is 7-10 MPH slower than the standard wing Rocket. He has done side-by-side slowflight with another F1. I also believe this is mostly attributable to the slotted flaps and the twist in the wing.

Top end, it's faster but I don't think the jury is in just yet about how much faster it is. It's difficult to get good test data that is comparable.

Tom Martin said:

Steven
Let me apologize in advance, but I just have to throw this back at you

Did I just hear "can't"?

Tom Martin

Click to expand...

No, I said right NOW I can not AFFORD to undertake this. I do plan to tweak with an metal RV-based airplane to take to reno... give me 10-15 years .

Randy is right on with the low end speeds that I am seeing. I operate from a grass strip and my landing rolls are, on average, 250 to 400 feet shorter than with the standard wing rockets that I have flown. Yes it can stall at similiar speeds to some RVs but it is a heavier aircraft and weight is your enemy when it comes to landing flares and rolls. This should come as no surprise to anyone. I have hundreds of hours on a standard wing rocket and it has very nice landing habits but you do have to be alert. The EVO wing just takes the edge off with lower approach speeds.
As for top speed, I do not yet have all the wing flap hinge faring on and at 4500 feet and below I am the same speed as a standard wing rocket. Above that I have an edge and I am quite sure that three to five knots faster will be possible. The wing lends itself to cross country work and so the higher altitude advantage, and lower approach speeds are a nice combination. One of the keys to the success of the RV wing is the wide speed range. This wing takes that another step forward and the benifits are real.
Two days ago I was flying besided a RV4, on our way to Ocean City New Jersey. I was set up at 22.5" 2100rpm and burning 10 gallons. The RV4 was at 2600 rpm and burning eleven gallons. I had two people on board, more fuel than he could carry if he was full and he was solo. I turned off at the same taxi way that he did. I no way am I putting down the RV4, it was my first homebuilt and a favorite, but the EVO wing does tame the rocket.

Tom Martin

Tom Martin

EVO and QB picts

I took picts of Team Rocket's display at OSH.

I was surprised to find that the EVO wing only holds 26 gals. each. plenty of fuel-- just expected a bit more.

mark manda said:

I took picts of Team Rocket's display at OSH.

I was surprised to find that the EVO wing only holds 26 gals. each. plenty of fuel-- just expected a bit more.

Click to expand...

Wow, yes, but what you didn't probably notice was the IO-550 setting there on the front of that F1.

So, is Mark now offering an IO-550 option? That would be a sweet setup on an F1. Cont specs the IO-550N at 310HP. And what's interesting, instead of giving a +/- HP addition/subtraction, like they do on some of their other engines, they say it could be up to 5% more than that.... Stock. Their Platinum program is most likely where this would happen as you get balanced injectors, flow porting, balance of components are closer, etc.

Very interesting...

I saw that in some earlier pictures. I do prefer lycomings myself, but you know the saying "gentleman prefer continentals..."

Ok, maybe thats not the saying, but it seems alot of high dollar aircraft use that engine for some reason. Smoother than the lyc, but thats about all I see going for it.