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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 21, 2008 23:48:50 GMT 12
The FU-24 Fletcher has had a lot of different powerplants fitted to it over the years. I was wondering, is there one engine that has emphaticly proven to be the best?
Or do each types of engine eally suit different roles of the aircraft maybe?
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Post by Bruce on Jun 22, 2008 10:04:49 GMT 12
Lycoming IO-720 by a long way...
Virtually every one of the "small engine" Fletchers were re-engined with '720s, in the Ag business "More Power" is the answer, whatever the question! A close second would have to be the Walther Turbine - SkodaJets seem to have replaced the 720s in a lot of the aircraft based in the Waikato anyway.
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Post by madmac on Jun 22, 2008 10:36:47 GMT 12
If Thielert hadn't gone bust there would have been a 350 Hp diesel Fletcher by the end of the year & it was expected t out performance the IO-720.
I understand that SuperAir is going back to the IO-720 from the Walter due to the fuel costs. Also LTP 101-700 might making a come back on the Cresco's as engine life is now the same & the fuel burn is better.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 22, 2008 11:28:46 GMT 12
So did the engine work that a couple of design teams looked into in the mid-1990's (one team being Pat Monk and colleagues) for the fitment of V-8 car engines to make them cheaper not pay off? I think PAC and Superair both built prototypes from memory but I can't recall which team Pat was contracted to.
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Post by hardyakka on Jun 22, 2008 14:10:45 GMT 12
The V8 engined Fletcher was experimented with for a long time before they gave up. Apparently they never managed to get the gearbox/prop combination to work properly. An instructor friend of mine expressed the opinion that engines with even numbers of cylinders never work with geared props... I'm not sure why. Radials certainly have odd numbers of cylinders, but Merlins have 12 and I'm sure they have had geared props attached (haven't they?)
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Post by lumpy on Jun 22, 2008 14:19:38 GMT 12
Pretty sure the Merlin is a geared prop , the Allison and Falconer ( Thunder Mustang ) certainly are . Not sure why radials are usually an odd number of cylinders , unless its something to do with having one " master " con rod , and an even number of cylinders after that
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Post by sleemanj on Jun 22, 2008 15:12:08 GMT 12
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Post by lumpy on Jun 22, 2008 15:38:51 GMT 12
Ah yes of course , an odd number of cylinders simply allows every second cylinder to fire in constant sucession . Cheers sleemanj
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Post by fletcherfu24 on Jun 23, 2008 21:00:07 GMT 12
....that was a great Aussie idea to put 400hp in the Fletcher,pity we didn't think of it first..  I think the resurgance of the Lycoming IO-720 Fletchers has more to do with exploding Walters than gas prices. |
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