I will try to answer your questions. Please remember we are not engineers..."
It is your "insider" knowledge and thought processes I'm after. Actually, envisioning and building one's own craft is quite different than "just" engineering one! Virtually all aircraft are built off the backs of designs that came before them. It's their unique features that makes them special.
1. I have a builders log but the thread is the only narrative. The builders log is just about times and tasks with nothing about why.... An abbreviated version will be part of the book my wife Ed and I hope to publish about traveling across the country in an amateur designed and built gyroplane.
Just a thought and please take this as encouragement and not a critique...a travelogue is wonderful, they are a blast to read, and there are many of them to enjoy (not too many though....especially gyro-based). Actual books outlining the construction of a craft such as yours, the mistakes and changes (e.g. the Mooney empennage idea and change) successes and THOUGHT PROCESSES are rare AND invaluable to people who like to build aircraft...If you write both, I will buy both :whip:
2. I know very little about composites and have only had experience with E and S glass and Kevlar....The cost of the materials took my breath away and my ignorance frightened me so I retained the services of Martin Hollmann...
I join you in knowing very little about composites. I have made some relatively simple layups with vacuum bagging (no significant load bearing). As I discovered, anyone can make composites...but only wizards in the black art of composites should make load-bearing parts. My early test pieces had all sorts of obvious bubbles & de-lams. But the terrifying part would be the load bearing pieces with hidden de-lams. The woven fiber prices were as terrifying.
In my FW days I drooled over (I hope it cleaned off easily) Mr. Hollman's composite, super slippery and speedy heavy hauler, Stallion/Super Stallion with its elegant cantilevered wings and amazing performance. Cessna tried to build this numerous times, over many years, in metal (C210), never achieving its elegance. Having him on your team is an incredible advantage....I wish I had that kind of pull!!!
I asked about Spectra because I was trying to get some free advice about composites made from the stuff. It appears to be pretty amazing (though it does slip some in some applications) and have been thinking about it for my next project.
3. The cost is hard to quantify... $60,000 starting from scratch... I suspect if I had to pay my friends for their work it would be well over $100,000.
I was afraid you were going to say that...dayummit...can't get away from that price range...accck!
4. We are using elastomeric devices in several places... Where the fiberglass connects to the framework we are using bonded in phenolic bushings per Martin Hollmann.
I brought about 1/2 sq. yard of 1/2" Sorbothane with me from America. Why I like it is that it conducts vibration and shock like Vermont maple syrup mixed with butyl goo...I used it to isolate a vibration table I built for my previous lab and couldn't believe how well it worked. As a bonus, it won't conduct sound either. I have only seen it used in a few aircraft...I'd like to know why it isn't used in all of them? I haven't been able to find an answer.
B. A two place tandem tractor gyroplane powered by a Continental IO-470 of around 260 horsepower. The goal is a 130kt (150 mile per hour) cruse speed and a solo climb out around 3,000 feet per minute.
These are both is the doodle stage of design.
Ahhh...tractors....not knowing anything about gyros, I find tractors irresistible...every R&D instinct in my feeble mind screams for me to build one. Their only downside (I can imagine...I don't 'know' this) is some reduced visibility...I can live with that...but, I really, really want to build and have one...really bad! I hope you will make your design and construction details available...I would even volunteer some time to do some research, etc. in my ignorance, I have already been doodling a few "ideal" shapes. More in a side-by-side configuration and handling the increased frontal profile with an extended nose and a composite stealth-type body. Who knows if it would fly? :wacko:
We don’t really design anything because we don’t know enough...We do not know enough to do a structural analysis...
My guess would be that, with your suite of friends, your "designs" could be made real without you being an engineer or a scientist.
He likes Ed a lot so I suspect he took a closer look than he claimed.
Hmmmm.... :suspicious:
Ed and I are planning of wearing personal parachutes.
Yes, I read that in another thread and am very impressed at your concern for safety. I'm a bit of a safety pest myself and respect it in others. ALWAYS better some safety (not false safety though) than no safety. I will get my non-parachute-based, low altitude recovery system to you eventually... if I don't blow myself up first! If you use it, your craft will never fly again but you probably will. :rapture:
Again Vance, I thank you for efforts, time and consideration. I have not been on this forum very long but I have already learned quite a bit from you and a couple of other folks. I am very grateful and hope to eventually make some sort of tiny contribution to gyro technology one day to somewhat help pay off my debt to you and the others who have taken the time to discuss issues and answer my inquiries.
Best Regards,
KD