After the US joined WWII, my late Pop enlisted in the US Army Air Forces at 19 and wanted to be a pilot. The Army made him a mechanic instead and he spent his service on Saipan. When I was a teenager and was rebuilding auto engines in our garage, he had a folder with a study from the 40s that he gave me. The study was about the benefits of water injection. That study was the kernel of some ideas on Otto cycle experimentation. A friend a couple houses down in the neighborhood was installing nitrous in his rebuilt Chevelle. So my teenage experience was during a time of engine experimentation and the 1970's oil embargos and big changes to gasoline from leaded to unleaded and so forth.
We are having another one of those phases in auto engine history and aviation engine history. Electric, hybrids, hydrogen, fuel cells, ethanol, Wankels, etc, and legal requirements to make gasoline engines more fuel efficient. BMW, among others, is working on water injection: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a25833896/how-water-injection-increases-horsepower/ I can anticipate some transfer of the new tech to aviation with a lot of experimentation. The liberalizing of Sport Pilot rules (and LSA's) that is expected from MOSAIC is exciting. Will the RV-9's qualify for sport pilots (maybe with added winglets)? Will the Mustang II enthusiasts try out new wings to make it fit MOSAIC? I hope the experimentation "mind virus" spreads through the EAA with an expanding group of new older pilots taking advantage of the expanded Sport Pilot privileges. There are professional aeronautical engineers and professional companies selling new airframe designs, but not a lot going on with power plants. When you look at who are the greatest amateur builder/experimenters (airframe and powerplant) in the EAA I see the KR/Freebird community at the top of the list. If there is a "Wright Bros" segment within EAB, it is you guys. In other EAB communities, there is a stern warning against experimenting with their airframe design or power plants. (Zenith is the exception with the power plants.) Not with you guys! That is why I am spitballing these ideas here. Rich, I don't know if you noticed, but in the comments section of that YouTube video you watched, many other benefits of ethanol were raised. Also, you wrote, "Interesting video however I don't see a lot of relevance to airplane engines as I'm not aware of any Corvairs or other engines typically used in home built airplanes that have variable compression." Turbocharging is the ideal method to supercharge the engine in aviation. Why not reclaim some of the waste heat to increase efficiency? Why not target a higher effective displacement above the geometric displacement with boost? Why not target a higher effective compression above the geometric compression ratio to take advantage of ethanol-and-water's properties (aka less expensive azeotropic ethanol)? There are variable boost turbochargers for flex fuel applications. The engineer in the video is talking a mile a minute and trying to cram a big topic into a short video. The key take-away is that huge increases in efficiency and power are possible with ethanol fuel -- even though it has only 67% of the energy content of gasoline. We already know that if we add water to the mix, it gets even better. When the video notes that the mpg is slightly better than gasoline, the take-away for me is that it can even match the mpg of gasoline with its lower energy content. On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 10:54 AM Steve Loebs <[email protected]> wrote: > "i do not wish to see any otters harmed in your flying adventures" > > First, thinking to myself, "wow, that Parker is using otter fat in his > homebrew fuel...he is hardcore. Although, on another forum Jan of Viking > noted that 100LL & Decalin doesn't work for his engines and now recommends > Marvel Mystery Oil. The NTSB says the mystery in Marvel Mystery Oil is > lard. So not too far off!" No, I knew what you meant. > > > > On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 7:29 AM Rich Parker via KRnet < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> "Mixed with water".... i do not wish to see any otters harmed in your >> flying adventures... >> >> Rich >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* KRnet <[email protected]> on behalf of Rich Parker >> via KRnet <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Wednesday, April 19, 2023 10:26:54 AM >> *To:* KRnet <[email protected]> >> *Cc:* Rich Parker <[email protected]> >> *Subject:* Re: KRnet> Mark's crankshafts and ethanol >> >> Interesting video however I don't see a lot of relevance to airplane >> engines as I'm not aware of any Corvairs or other engines typically used in >> home built airplanes that have variable compression other than a possible >> 1% better mpg. What the video presenter does not discuss is that any >> ethanol added to gasoline would be subject to the 14.7% fuel air mix your >> ratio rather than the desired 9% for ethanol so essentially the ethanol is >> running lean. One benefit of the ethanol being hydrophilic is that it will >> mix with otter which when converted to steam expands 6000% increasing >> compression inside the cylinder while also providing a desired cooling >> effect. I remember researching that years before many of you were probably >> born back when there was a water injection system available through the JC >> Whitney catalog >> >> Rich >> ------------------------------ >> *From:* KRnet <[email protected]> on behalf of Steve Loebs >> via KRnet <[email protected]> >> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 18, 2023 11:59:51 PM >> *To:* KRnet <[email protected]> >> *Cc:* Steve Loebs <[email protected]> >> *Subject:* KRnet> Mark's crankshafts and ethanol >> >> Mark L, I just read your page on your crankshaft odyssey. Are you, and >> any others using Corvair engines, still satisfied that a new billet >> crankshaft with good fillet radii (along with the 5th bearing and prop >> indexing) will eliminate the issue of broken crankshafts in Corvair >> aviation engines? >> >> This also got me thinking about a YouTube video about engine efficiency >> that I watched a few days ago. Last September, Larry F, started a thread >> that included the topic of ethanol. I added some info about the benefits of >> ethanol and included links for those interested in the science. On other >> lists I hear a common misconception that ethanol is "hydroscopic." That is >> not a word and they usually mean hygroscopic. However, that is not factual, >> either. Ethanol is hydrophilic. Anywho, a few days ago I watched an >> interesting video on the topic as it applies to engines that many of you >> may enjoy. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_DQPLihXfo >> >> >> >> -- >> KRnet mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet >> >
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