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Originally posted by Torinoman View PostWhat's this?
The new RP-4 aircraft shown here, is being built to attack the World 3, 15 and 100 Kilometer Speed Records.
Engines: Two high performance V-8 engines power the RP-4, representing the best compromise among size, weight, power and availability. Tandem mounted, each engine drives its own propeller. The front engine drives the front prop directly and the rear engine, through gearboxes which bypass the front engine, drives the rear prop in contra rotation. Independent fuel and cooling systems allow for single engine operation.
Propellers: Utilizing NASA Unducted Fan Technology, two four-blade propellers with variable pitch hubs were constructed. The blades consist of 84 layers of prepreg carbon fiber and are 58 inches in diameter.
Cooling: During engine warm up, thermostats cycle engine water through the oil sump heat exchanger to quickly bring engine oil to operating temperature. Once up to temperature, the thermostats then direct engine water to a series of aluminum tubes within the wing. These tubes are immersed in 50 gallons of water which carry engine heat to the wing surfaces which are cooled by the slipstream. Separate series of tubes are provided for each engine enabling autonomous cooling of either engine. Wing water can be diverted through an auxiliary radiator located in the tail cone for cooling on the ground if needed. The forced induction systems generate high inlet temperatures and induction air is directed through evaporators charged by air conditioning compressors. This system also provides conditioned air to the cockpit.
Fuel: A 100 gallon fuel cell below the wing supplies fuel to engine-driven pumps which feed the injectors.
Gear: All gear retract aft into the fuselage. The main gear articulates as it retracts holding the wheels parallel to the fuselage throughout retraction.
Wing: The RP-4 wing is one of the most complex ever constructed. Less than 3 inches at its thickest point, it nevertheless contains flaps and ailerons as well as 200 feet of tubing and nearly 400 fabricated fittings and connectors which comprise the cooling systems.
Fuselage: Built entirely of large diameter chrome moly tubing, the fuselage is skinned in 60 thousandths aluminum and is 31 inches in diameter.
Empennage: The vertical and horizontal stabilizers are, like the wing, both riveted and bonded together. The vertical stabilizer houses the nav/comm antennas as well as pitot and cockpit ventilation systems.
Performance: The RP-4 is designed to be a high performance aircraft.
Eric Hereth, master machinist, fabricator and welder, built all components of this remarkable aircraft from scratch, with the exceptions of engine long blocks, wheels, and hydraulic components.
Jerry Baer assisted in all phases of construction.
It was mentioned in an article on homebuilt planes in either PopSci or PopMechanics within the past few months.Last edited by Strychnine; 11-03-2011, 08:01 AM.
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Was it ever flown?
kinda reminds me of:
Last edited by CJ; 11-03-2011, 08:18 AM."When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." -Benjamin Franklin
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." -Alexander Fraser Tytler
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Originally posted by 5.0_CJ View PostWas it ever flown?
Not yet.
It's good to be an amateur airplane designer in the U.S. Engineering software is available, airspace is permissive, and hordes of fellow tinkerers are on hand to help. Some of the best plane builders tell PM how to get it done.
David Rose is the builder / pilot.
An amateur aircraft designer can tailor a plane to fit his or her precise requirements, no matter how outlandish. Take David Rose. Inside his hangar at Montgomery Field in San Diego, this former airline pilot is building a machine that he hopes will earn him aeronautical immortality. If all goes according to plan, a thunderously overpowered racing machine called RP-4 will reach a straight and level speed in excess of 528.3 mph and become the world's fastest piston-driven plane. The 22-year-old record is held by a modified World War II—era Grumman F8F Bearcat.
Rose has been obsessed with speed all his life. In his teens, he built drag racers and started a weekly race meet in Petersburg, Va., near his hometown. Then he joined the Air Force, where, impatient to break the sound barrier (761 mph at sea level), he took an F-86 to 30,000 feet and then dove straight down on full afterburner. In civilian life, he flew (more responsibly) passenger jets for American Airlines.
In 1990, Rose found inspiration at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., where souped-up planes tear around a closed circuit 50 feet off the ground at speeds exceeding 500 mph. He bought a used Pitts Special biplane and won a trophy with it in 1992—and then decided he could do better. Using off-the-shelf engineering software, he designed his own biplane.
No big deal, Rose says: "You just crack the books and buy some computer programs." With the help of former airline pilot Jerry Baer and local mechanic Eric Hereth, Rose built the plane in his hangar in 10 months. Powered by a 230-hp engine, it clocked 225 mph around the Reno circuit in 2002 and won Rose the Biplane Gold category four times.
His RP-4 project is another beast entirely. Inside the cowling sit two engines, both 2700-hp Dart V8 "Big M" aftermarket drag-racing blocks, 598 cubic inches each, one mounted in front of the other. The massive engines suck 110-octane racing fuel at 120 gallons per hour. The exhaust stack produces 300 pounds of thrust—enough, Rose says, that "we could fly the plane on the exhaust alone."
Instead of linking directly to a single prop, the driveshafts turn a gearbox connected to a pair of counter-rotating propellers, 24-inch-long carbon-fiber blades. The experimental design, which offers greater efficiency than conventional props, was developed by NASA engineers for the rigors of high-Mach flight. At full throttle, the propeller's tips break the speed of sound.
Rose and Hereth are obsessed with their high-speed project and expect other people to feel the same; the odder the construction, the more the builders want to show it off.
Outside the open hangar doors, a sunset is turning the underbelly of the quilted cumulus Barbie-pink, and the breeze carries the sweet tang of eucalyptus. Rose runs an appreciative hand along the boxy skeleton of 4130 moly-chrome tubing—another of the craft's unusual features.
Most modern planes have monocoque construction, with the metal or composite skin providing much of the structural strength. RP-4 is built more like a skyscraper, with an internal truss bearing all the major stresses.
"This structure is designed to survive an impact of 300 mph," Rose says.
"If the angle is less than 10 degrees," Hereth adds.
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