Rotary10-RV
Well Known Member
As I have been rather long winded about the rotary in another thread I figured I would be true to my word and start a thread about rotary conversions. There are several types of aircraft already flying with a rotary engine. The list (and I'm sureI've left some out) RV's mostly 6's, Long EZ's several, The most interesting being that of Perry Mick who designed his own ducted fan and ran the rotary direct drive! Sadly or gladly he has since converted to a standard PSRU and pusher prop. Several of the Zenith designs are running rotaries. The biggest contributor to the rotary cause so far has been Tracy Crook (who fortunatly isn't). Tracy sells an engine control module with redundant controls for injection and ignition. Also two different PSRU's or re-drives as he likes to call them. Tracy has over 1000 hours on his RV-4 conversion. Tracy recently installed the new 2 rotor engine out of the RX-8 sports coupe called a Renesis by Mazda (Yea I know the name is weird but the engine runs verywell) He is also bulding an RV-8 as a test bed for another version of the rotary called the 20B which has 3 rotor chambers and was used on larger sedans in the japanese home market. the engine is a natural for aircraft since it is 50% larger. This is the engine about which I'm basing my own conversion. I'll be running the 20B engine in my RV-10 once completed. Mistral Engines in Florida is producing a 2 rotor that is to be CERTIFIED which will surely help the rotary in the eyes of the insurance companies. Fortunately Mistral is also going to sell parts to the homebuilder market. The reason I'm interested is that their PSRU is designed for high HP and is setup for the use of a hydraulic constant speed prop from the outset. In fact they are running this engine in a Piper Arrow now preparing for certification. The RV-10 has a wide speed range and I expect that using a CS prop is really almost a necessity. I would be interested in Tracy's unit which is much cheaper if it could accomodate a standard CS, but so far this hasn't been a priority with Tracy, he has a great deal of business already. An MT electric prop is always a possibility but is very expensive. That is a start for rotary conversions which IMO show a great deal of promise.
Rotary10-RV
Bill Jepson
Rotary10-RV
Bill Jepson