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Unbelievable new avionics product

findane

Active Member
A couple of months ago I flow to SFB to meet with Ruben Leon, the president and chief engineer of Level Aviation. Ruben built an RV9A that he uses as a test bed for his revolutionary avionics.

The product Ruben showed me will absolutely revolutionize the homebuilt market. The product was a "torpedo" approximately eight inches long and smaller around than a soda can with a little propeller in the back. It attaches under the wing or on top of a vertical stabilizer.

But what was in the "torpedo" blew me away. Contained inside are the following; pitot static info, temperature, pressure, AOA, GPS, ADS-B in and out. The little propeller on the back, generates its own power. All the data is transmitted via wifi to any tablet in the cockpit. Just think of all the wiring, switches, and breakers this product eliminates.

However he's not finished. He intimated to me they are looking at adding a FLIR camera to the unit!
 
Hmmm, interesting idea, particularly for that old Cub-like airplane with no electrics.

I am wondering how the ADSB function will be implemented if the only power source is a wind-driven generator, since ADSB is required to function on the ground as well as in the air?

If he can get a good FLIR camera in there, one that will allow me to see deer on the runway, I'd be interested.
 
I'd imagine that unit produces a good amount of drag? I can only seeing it being really beneficial to aircraft that do not have an electrical system.

I mean it sounds like great innovation, but I do not think its something I would install on an RV.
 
[checks date] Nope, not April 1st yet.

Well that sounds pretty interesting. As for power, I would assume it could be hard-wired on an airframe that has an electrical system?

I'd pay $500 for that.
 
I would power it all with a lithium pack and trickle charge it in flight from a small prop. The legal hurdle, as Navworx is finding out... is the WAAS, TSO gps receiver. It is an expensive chipset. The FAA has made their displeasure known..... even in experimental birds.... with non TSO chipsets.
As the AD on Navworx gets published... we may cross our fingers that they allow the experimental some leeway, as they have with other avionics.
If I designed a small unit, I would use a ducted fan arrangement like some of the model RC's have. No prop blades hanging out in the open.
 
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What's old, is new again...

While not exactly the same, this concept reminds me of the old venturi tubes that provided suction for gyros...hardly anything to break, and no electricity required.
 
Other option

If I were to do this same thing for RVs I would build it into a wingtip. Have a NACA duct on the bottom that funnel air through a ducted fan exhausting on top of the wingtip. Same function just eliminating most of the added drag.
 
If I were to do this same thing for RVs I would build it into a wingtip. Have a NACA duct on the bottom that funnel air through a ducted fan exhausting on top of the wingtip. Same function just eliminating most of the added drag.
if you went through all that trouble, you'd just run a wire to it...
 
if you went through all that trouble, you'd just run a wire to it...

By all that trouble do you mean taking the torpedo shape made by the manufacturer, figuring out where to mount it, and then building a structural bracket for it? Or, do you mean taking the fiberglass structure the manufacturer could make, cutting a couple holes in your wingtip, and glueing it in?
The basic point is, if you have a potential market as large as the RV community for a product, you may want to look at packaging for said market.
Either way, you might as well run a wire to it.:)
 
If I were to do this same thing for RVs I would build it into a wingtip. Have a NACA duct on the bottom that funnel air through a ducted fan exhausting on top of the wingtip. Same function just eliminating most of the added drag.

Really doubt you'd eliminate most of the drag. Think about it - it's going to act as an obstruction to an air path either way with that prop generator spinning and that's the drag. Also, buried like that, the AOA won't work. Plus you'll have duct losses.

Dave
 
Really doubt you'd eliminate most of the drag. Think about it - it's going to act as an obstruction to an air path either way with that prop generator spinning and that's the drag. Also, buried like that, the AOA won't work. Plus you'll have duct losses.

Dave

not to mention the large amounts of torque from the drag all the way out on the wing tip. Would probably induce a heck of a yaw motion towards which ever wingtip its on.
 
Make it look like a JDAM (sorry, GBU-39), put it on a center hard point. Or one under each wing. Do you guys have NO imagination?

:)
 
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Really glad.....

Neither of you called it a bomb. Might have to answer some NSA/NRO/CIA/FBI questions 😀
 
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