New Product announcement!
As a complement to our Ram-Air Intakes, we now have an inlet scoop available, so that you don't have to make your own.
This one is made to fit the Vans RV-8 Cowl. The basic shape started out as the scoop originally available from Rod Bower, but with some improvements.
Peter Coen graciously loaned us his Rod Bower RV-8 inlet scoop to pull a mold off of. From that, we made a starting pattern to do our modifications. The inlet lip on Rod's scoops is too sharp, so I filled and contoured a more generous inlet lip. This will minimize spillage drag.
The front portion of Rod's inlets always looked too conical to me, not curved enough. This is purely aesthetic, there would be no difference in performance, but I filled and contoured a more curved and blended shape that is more pleasing to the eye (at least mine
)
An additional improvement is the integration of an aluminum 'neck' on the inside to clamp the flexible inlet duct to that mates to the Ram-Air Intake.
The inlet has a 3" I.D., same as the Rod Bower inlets. This is fine for everything up to a standard IO-540.
The inlet has a wide flange that allows either permanent bonding and blending to your cowl, or attachment with screws or skybolt type quarter-turn fasteners to make it removable. You could just screw it on and leave the flange edge, or mask the edge and add some filler to the cowl to make a smooth, flush transition to the flange.
note: a removable scoop should simplify making the connection to the ram-air intake, although I am able to reach inside with my fingers and push the flexible ducting into place with a permanently bonded scoop.
Rod Bower had different molds for every model of Vans cowl, so apparently there is enough variation in cowl shape that he felt that necessary to get a good fit. Dan Matlosz at Fairings-Etc (DMat here on VAF) now has those molds and can make you an actual Rod Bower-shaped inlet to fit other cowls. OR, if you have an RV other than an -8 and would like to take advantage of our improved shape, we can mold one for you with the flange made very light and flexible - maybe just one ply. You could cut slits in the flange as necessary to get the flange to flex into the shape of your cowl, cleco it to your cowl, and lay up a couple more plies of fiberglass on the flange to bring it to full stiffness, custom fit to your particular cowl. We are assuming this one will fit the RV-8 cowl well, since it was molded from one that does. But I wouldn't be shocked if a little bit of filling and contouring would be required -- we don't know how well Rod's inlets fit in the first place, we just copied it.
The inlet scoop is $350 supplied in grey vinyl-ester primer. You can order them direct from HPAIRCRAFT.COM, or PM me here. And of course you can see the rest of the HP Aircraft product line on the web site as well. For the Ram-Air Intakes, it's best to contact me directly here by PM, but if you order through Bob K, he will forward it on to me.
As a complement to our Ram-Air Intakes, we now have an inlet scoop available, so that you don't have to make your own.
This one is made to fit the Vans RV-8 Cowl. The basic shape started out as the scoop originally available from Rod Bower, but with some improvements.
Peter Coen graciously loaned us his Rod Bower RV-8 inlet scoop to pull a mold off of. From that, we made a starting pattern to do our modifications. The inlet lip on Rod's scoops is too sharp, so I filled and contoured a more generous inlet lip. This will minimize spillage drag.
The front portion of Rod's inlets always looked too conical to me, not curved enough. This is purely aesthetic, there would be no difference in performance, but I filled and contoured a more curved and blended shape that is more pleasing to the eye (at least mine
)An additional improvement is the integration of an aluminum 'neck' on the inside to clamp the flexible inlet duct to that mates to the Ram-Air Intake.
The inlet has a 3" I.D., same as the Rod Bower inlets. This is fine for everything up to a standard IO-540.
The inlet has a wide flange that allows either permanent bonding and blending to your cowl, or attachment with screws or skybolt type quarter-turn fasteners to make it removable. You could just screw it on and leave the flange edge, or mask the edge and add some filler to the cowl to make a smooth, flush transition to the flange.
note: a removable scoop should simplify making the connection to the ram-air intake, although I am able to reach inside with my fingers and push the flexible ducting into place with a permanently bonded scoop.
Rod Bower had different molds for every model of Vans cowl, so apparently there is enough variation in cowl shape that he felt that necessary to get a good fit. Dan Matlosz at Fairings-Etc (DMat here on VAF) now has those molds and can make you an actual Rod Bower-shaped inlet to fit other cowls. OR, if you have an RV other than an -8 and would like to take advantage of our improved shape, we can mold one for you with the flange made very light and flexible - maybe just one ply. You could cut slits in the flange as necessary to get the flange to flex into the shape of your cowl, cleco it to your cowl, and lay up a couple more plies of fiberglass on the flange to bring it to full stiffness, custom fit to your particular cowl. We are assuming this one will fit the RV-8 cowl well, since it was molded from one that does. But I wouldn't be shocked if a little bit of filling and contouring would be required -- we don't know how well Rod's inlets fit in the first place, we just copied it.
The inlet scoop is $350 supplied in grey vinyl-ester primer. You can order them direct from HPAIRCRAFT.COM, or PM me here. And of course you can see the rest of the HP Aircraft product line on the web site as well. For the Ram-Air Intakes, it's best to contact me directly here by PM, but if you order through Bob K, he will forward it on to me.
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