Post by turbotom on Aug 19, 2021 17:12:36 GMT -5
Some of you may be aware of our ongoing endeavour to manufacture a replacement for the Solar T-62T-32 engines, well-known especially to the experimental rotorcraft community.
Since recently ultralight helicopters have been legalized in Europe and especially in Germany, that require a powerplant of a power range and especially a power / weight ratio that isn't covered by the established ultralight engine manufacturer's product portfolio, and since used T-62T-32 engines of decent condition are meanwhile more and more difficult to find, we decided to design and manufacture our own engine for this application.
The whole concept is basically my "Brain Child", based on the original Solar design where it makes sense and modified where scientific progress, manufacturing and weight considerations made it seem reasonable. The "we" refers to my business partner who is an ultralight flight instructor, helicopter pilot and in the fortunate position to be able to finanically back the whole project, and above all, a real "Buddy"
.
As yet, we've finished our "Turbomachinery section" and the gearbox, though the latter needs some attention due to an inaccuracy by one of our subcontractors. So right now, we've been running our power head with a modified original Solar combustor on a T-62T-32 gearbox. My approach was to keep all the major section interfaces compatible with the "old" Solar design so we can use our engine subsections as improved replacements for original parts.
During the past week we took a major hurdle as our power head took flight. Here are some photos that I took during the manufacturing phase, some of which may look familiar...
Turbine Wax
Still hotter than ever later in its life...hopefully
Test casting of an RP original wheel and the final, improved splitter blade design
Turbomachinery...
Compressor & Diffuser
Compressor / Shaft assembly procedure with liquid nitrogen cooled shaft
Finally, an assembled and balanced rotor
The power head ready to install
An exploded drawing of our Turbomachinery Assembly
The test flight data shows amazing performance characteristics of the new engine: In hover flight of the helicopter, the EGT levels are at least 100°C less than with the original engine even though it's been considerably more warm during these tests (13°C vs. 30°C). Actually, the Neo power head hovers in the same region that the original one is running at while idling at 100% / no load on the blades. As yet, we've hovered for about an hour, and under these demanding conditions, fuel flow is about 52 l/h (13Gph). As it appears right now, we can flat rate the engine for this application since it's got power to spare to operate in hot & high conditions:
Test Flight Data Log
Our next job will be to finish our dynamometer and to establish a test sequence to run some units just to evaluate longevity of the improved turbomachinery.
And just for the fun of it, here's the obligatory video clip:
Neo200 Power Head First Flight
Edit: Changed the photos / pictures host since ProBoards didn't seem to be compatible with my web space provider
.
Since recently ultralight helicopters have been legalized in Europe and especially in Germany, that require a powerplant of a power range and especially a power / weight ratio that isn't covered by the established ultralight engine manufacturer's product portfolio, and since used T-62T-32 engines of decent condition are meanwhile more and more difficult to find, we decided to design and manufacture our own engine for this application.
The whole concept is basically my "Brain Child", based on the original Solar design where it makes sense and modified where scientific progress, manufacturing and weight considerations made it seem reasonable. The "we" refers to my business partner who is an ultralight flight instructor, helicopter pilot and in the fortunate position to be able to finanically back the whole project, and above all, a real "Buddy"
.As yet, we've finished our "Turbomachinery section" and the gearbox, though the latter needs some attention due to an inaccuracy by one of our subcontractors. So right now, we've been running our power head with a modified original Solar combustor on a T-62T-32 gearbox. My approach was to keep all the major section interfaces compatible with the "old" Solar design so we can use our engine subsections as improved replacements for original parts.
During the past week we took a major hurdle as our power head took flight. Here are some photos that I took during the manufacturing phase, some of which may look familiar...
Turbine Wax
Still hotter than ever later in its life...hopefully
Test casting of an RP original wheel and the final, improved splitter blade design
Turbomachinery...
Compressor & Diffuser
Compressor / Shaft assembly procedure with liquid nitrogen cooled shaft
Finally, an assembled and balanced rotor
The power head ready to install
An exploded drawing of our Turbomachinery Assembly
The test flight data shows amazing performance characteristics of the new engine: In hover flight of the helicopter, the EGT levels are at least 100°C less than with the original engine even though it's been considerably more warm during these tests (13°C vs. 30°C). Actually, the Neo power head hovers in the same region that the original one is running at while idling at 100% / no load on the blades. As yet, we've hovered for about an hour, and under these demanding conditions, fuel flow is about 52 l/h (13Gph). As it appears right now, we can flat rate the engine for this application since it's got power to spare to operate in hot & high conditions:
Test Flight Data Log
Our next job will be to finish our dynamometer and to establish a test sequence to run some units just to evaluate longevity of the improved turbomachinery.
And just for the fun of it, here's the obligatory video clip:
Neo200 Power Head First Flight
Edit: Changed the photos / pictures host since ProBoards didn't seem to be compatible with my web space provider
.
