GA Aircraft Turbine (new)

[barnstorm2]

My apologies if someone already posted this.

Seems cool.

http://www.innodyn.com/

[Will Crisp]

"Easy to maintain Inspect the Turbine rotors annually, change the gearbox oil every 500 hours and the spark plugs every two years – that’s it!"

"Innodyn is currently developing additional Turbines for the experimental marketplace"
(forward firewall only)

"Innodyn 165TE
165 Horsepower
Introductory Price: $26,500"

OUCH! I feel a vapor lock on the wallet!

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For $26,500. That's the starting price for the engine only. They contract out the firewall forward package to another company who has packages that start at $12,500.

The package includes:

Custom made motor mount
Engine instruments and installation.
Constant speed prop
Custom cowl
and more.

It's really not a bad deal for 39k if you have it. From what I understand about the engine, is that it's most efficient at full throttle, flying with pitch only. I may be wrong, but that's what I got from the article.

I was considering using this combination with my Littlewing, but the one kidney I could do without.....well, I still have it.

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[Vance]

My limited understanding of turbines says that if not operating at design rpm they become very inefficent, read consumptive. You can't help but be excited about the power to weight though. Thank you, Vance

[KenSandyEggo]

This is the former Affordable Turbine Power (ATP) company. I forget why they changed their name. Maybe because it's not as "affordable" as initially thought.

[Ron Marlett]

It is a single shaft turbine IE: the gearbox, compressor and turbine wheel are all on 1 shaft. This type config is simple and light but has the limitation of needing fairly constant RPM. Since turbines are internally air cooled, they need to be at sufficient RPM to pass enough air to absorb the heat of the process. Because of this, single shaft turbines do not accelerate well from idle under a load. To make them practicle aircraft powerplants, you run them at 100% all the time and use a controllable pitch prop to control the ammount of thrust. Load is limited by the temp being applied to the turbine wheel. A governor meters fuel and trys to maintain a constant RPM as the load increases/decreases. I would guess their computer will reach a temp limit in trying to maintain RPM under high load, before RPM falls due to an overload. If RPM starts to fall, less cooling air will be ingested and the computer must reduce the fuel to keep the temp under control which causes the RPM to drop even faster ect... You would have to reduce load to regain RPM.

Most turboprop/turboshaft engines have at least 2 shafts. The compressor and Gas Gen turbine are on one shaft. The free or power turbine and gearbox are on another. The Gas Generator section runs independent of the free turbine and is virtually uneffected by the load on the gearbox. These typically use a constant speed prop that operates over a wider RPM range. They are more forgiving of load changes but are way more complex in terms of parts and control.

I seem to remember a company called WPS or Watercraft Power Systems putting together a package like this for a jetski using some type of controllable pump assembly to regulate the thrust. Cool but expensive.

Ron

[skyguynca]

Hey guys, single shaft turbines are fine for flying, people been using them for years, I belong to alot of lists and this company has not- I repeat - NOT lived up to their sales, they have deposits from I know of atleast 5 people who did not get the engines. They wanted the 255hp that was supposed to be ready 3 years ago and it isn't, a few guys went to the place where they make them to look at the operations, quote" the test cell equipment was still under plastic sheets and in boxes, my engine I had bought was not even started 6 months after my deposit was accepted" I would be very leary of this company.

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Thanks for the heads up. I'll end my "Kidney for Sale" listing on ebay at once! :D

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