In Flight USA July 2020

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In Flight USA Celebrating 36 Years

RECENT

Homebuilder’s Workshop

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ome of you may recall that I’ve been working on the Expanded Envelope ExercisesŽ (E3) for the past four years, looking to reduce loss-ofcontrol accidents by making pilots more cognitively available so that they can detect LOC precursors before they actually lose control. On Saturday (June 20), I flew E3 with an extraordinarily experienced pilot in my RV-9A and then we flew a reduced set of E3 in his Baron (!).

The RV-9A is agile and kind of doesn’t seem to care whether it’s in the stall buffet or not, and we did all kinds of exercises – all within 60-degree bank, 30degree pitch and 2 g. Amazing airplane.

Then we flew some of E3 in the Baron, recognizing that we did not want to stall the Baron as we would the RV9A. In fact, we did not stall the Baron at all. The Baron is much more stately in its handling, but there were still corners of the envelope to explore while observing pitch and bank limits as well as respecting multi-engine and stall safety.

Research has indicated that low speed spirals can masquerade as spins and be just as deadly. We carefully tried some in the Baron with gear down, roughly doubling the aircraft’s drag. I was surprised how

By Ed Wischmeyer

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ANCIENT, FAST

much that extra drag kept speed buildup and altitude loss under control, much better than in fixed-gear airplanes. We also saw the phugoid (speed stability) raise the nose in spirals, more pronounced than I’ve seen in the RV-9A. E3 in the RV-9A has taught me so much about the edges of the “normal category� flight envelope and the kinds of pilot psychology that come into play there. Hopefully, this knowledge will be adopted by flight schools and OEMs to help keep our friends alive.

•••••

All of us are interested in new engine technologies, of course, wishing that those technologies could be applied to GA. Diesels have had a mixed track record to date with high initial costs and low time between replacement, not overhaul. Still, it’s fun to recall that in WWII, the Germans had a diesel engine that was smaller, lighter, and more powerful than the Rolls-Royce Merlin.

They’re at it again. RED-Aircraft GmbH has a 12-cylinder diesel engine, four-stroke, with the cylinder banks at 80 degrees (yes, 80 degrees). Each bank of

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July 2020

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cylinders has its own FADEC, and the whole shootin’ match is already EASA and FAA certified. The variants are 500600 HP. Currently, they’re looking for certification partners. No word on weight or price, but as the saying goes, if you have to ask‌ A curious note in passing is that their past and current presidents are both from Byelorussia.

•••••

So who invented the V-8 engine?

Henry Ford? bzzt, nope. Cadillac in 1914? Closer, but the correct answer is LÊon Levavasseur in France, who got backing for his project and then named the engine after his financier’s daughter, Antoinette. When the aerodynamics of Levavasseur’s first airplane to have this engine didn’t fly, so to speak, Levavasseur removed the 80 HP engine and burned the airframe, in 1903.

The Antoinette engine was then put into speedboats where it was a great hit, winning all kinds of races in 1904.

Antoinette airplanes started to show up in 1910. V-16 engines followed, and even a V-24 marine engine.

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Want more trivia?

The Antoinette engines all were in a 90-degree V configuration, were the first to use fuel injection, had aluminum crankcases and individual water-cooled cylinders. And hemispherical combustion chambers too!

Engine tolerances were 0.01 mm, or 0.0004 inches. Wow. Wild West Showman Samuel Franklin Cody made the first powered flight in the UK with you guessed it, an Antoinette engine. Antoinette also made the first flight simulator, a rather crude device of a seat on a half barrel, curved side down, with “instructors� rocking the barrel.

Other records included altitude (155 m in 1909), speed (77.5 km/h in 1910), and first successful landing in a body of water (it didn’t sink), namely, the English Channel. Bleriot, who made the first successful channel crossing, was a former Antoinette vice president.

Personally, I’d love to have an old Antoinette or Hispano-Suiza V-8 engine from that era, or a Liberty engine, which came in configurations from four to 12 cylinders. No idea what I’d do with one, though‌ living room isn’t big enough.

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