Turbine Duke

[Groundpounder]

The guy that designed the turbine mod for the Malibu has now come up with a mod that throws PT-6's on the Duke. I think it looks pretty **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** sexy!

http://www.pilotjournal.com/content/2005/julyaug/301_knots.html

 

[USMCmech]

Interesting,


Get rid of the Dukes unreliable engines, and now maybe mechanics won't run away.


91 kt Vmc though, that's pretty fast to be scooting down the runway.

 

[Milkdud99]

Dookie???

 

[Pugh]

Nice. And those Dukes are great looking planes as it is.

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

now that's a sweet bird...300 knots on 62 gals of kerosene at 2.80 a gallon vs. 220 knots on 45 gals of avgas at 3.30 a gallon

173.60-148.50=25 bux for 80 extra knots

and none of the 1,200 hour overhaul bull**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**

plus it looks freagin sweet

 

[Diesel]

Looks like the cg is pretty far forward. If i remember the CG is a normal duke is pretty far foward with just two pilots.

 

[Groundpounder]

According to the article, you'll be spending pretty close to $1 million for one of these birds. Can't you get a pretty decent King Air 90 for that much?

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

a90 would burn more and its slower

 

[Diesel]

an a90 can be bought for under 600k

 

[wheelsup]

Looks like the cg is pretty far forward. If i remember the CG is a normal duke is pretty far foward with just two pilots.

According to the article, they've thought of that:

The lost weight came out of a fairly forward CG position, and that shifted the balance point well aft. In order to rebalance the envelope, Conrad relocated both batteries to the nose, as far forward as possible. Also, mounting turbine engines repositioned the props three inches farther forward. Collectively, these changes offset the lighter engines and restored the balance.

~wheelsup

 

[Workin'Stiff]

an a90 can be bought for under 600k

I'm sure you'll get a real "cherry" of an A90 for $600k... *sarcasm* I'd stick with the Duke...

 

[BD King]

Heck. I passed a A90 one day in a Duke. Of course I didn't say anything that might have embarrassed him.

www.bdkingpress.com

 

[FN FAL]

a90 would burn more and its slower

plus, you can put an A90 on a 135 certificate.

We had a turbine converted 421 that could not be put on the 135 certificate...even though we had Several Cessna Conquests.

Anyone looking to put this conversion on the Duke better look into whether or not they will ever be able to leaseback this plane, if that is their intentions.

 

[Groundpounder]

plus, you can put an A90 on a 135 certificate.

We had a turbine converted 421 that could not be put on the 135 certificate...even though we had Several Cessna Conquests.

Anyone looking to put this conversion on the Duke better look into whether or not they will ever be able to leaseback this plane, if that is their intentions.

Why couldn't you put the 421 on the 135 cert?

 

[ultrarunner]

Why on earth would you spend 1 million bucks on a home-build???Especially staring with an airframe that is 25 to 30 years old. Good grief.

Heck, if you're gonna spend a million bucks on a beech twin turboprob, get yourself a good used B200. Designed right the first time. Not some cobbed up POS.

Idots with money...but it is aviation.

 

[TDTURBO]

It looks nice but I would rather get a brand new Eclipse for a little more cash, plus it's faster and more efficient as in .89 cents per seat mile.

 

[FN FAL]

Why couldn't you put the 421 on the 135 cert?

I have no idea, I just know that they couldn't. It was a nice plane, but the owner found it easier to sell it and buy a real Conquest and that plane was put on 135 leaseback.

 

[BD King]

FN FAL--------Ya changed your avatar. I liked the doggie.

 

[MVSW]

Thats looks real nice!!

 

[2000flyer]

now that's a sweet bird...300 knots on 62 gals of kerosene at 2.80 a gallon vs. 220 knots on 45 gals of avgas at 3.30 a gallon

173.60-148.50=25 bux for 80 extra knots

and none of the 1,200 hour overhaul bull**CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**

plus it looks freagin sweet

$2.80??? I'd love to be based at your field. Even at a discount I'm paying about $3.45 at my home airport. Most place I go are pushing above $4.00/gallon (some well above!)!

 

[Diesel]

I just paid 2.35 a gallon for jet A.

Made me smile all day long.

 

[Lead Sled]

I just paid 2.35 a gallon for jet A.

Made me smile all day long.

Whose tank was it drained out of?

 

[TDTURBO]

$2.80??? I'd love to be based at your field. Even at a discount I'm paying about $3.45 at my home airport. Most place I go are pushing above $4.00/gallon (some well above!)!

I would be pissed paying 2.80/gal for LL, I fill up here every time when I can which is 90% of the time.

http://www.airnav.com/airport/KOXI

 

[Mickey]

Originally Posted by Vladimir Lenin
now that's a sweet bird...300 knots on 62 gals of kerosene at 2.80 a gallon vs. 220 knots on 45 gals of avgas at 3.30 a gallon

173.60-148.50=25 bux for 80 extra knots

$173.60/300kt= $0.58/kt vs. $148.50/220kt= $0.68/kt

I think Duke values just went up.

 

[KigAir]

Anybody notice this quote from the article:

As avgas becomes progressively more expensive and less available,

I understand the more expensive part but less available?

 

[Lead Sled]

Anybody notice this quote from the article:

As avgas becomes progressively more expensive and less available,

I understand the more expensive part but less available?

100LL will be taken off the market, perhaps with in 10 years. "They" are working on a suitable replacement, but there really don't have one yet. The next 10 years are going to be quite interesting. I understand that there is a certified replacement - 91 octane, but they've still got to figure out how to get 100 octane engines to operate on the stuff without loosing too much power.

As far as bastardizing the Duke...

You can count on one hand the number of general aviation airframes that were successful in going from piston to turbine power - the ones that come to mind are the Piper Malibu / Meridian, the Cessna 421 / Conquest I, the Piper Navajo / Cheyenne, and the Beech Queen Air / King Air (stretching it a bit).

There have been many more attempts that didn't make it or had very limited success in the market - the Soloy Cessna conversions, the Allison powered Cessna 402, the turboprop Bonanza and Cessna P210 conversions, the Riley 421 conversion (actually two separate mods, they had both P&W and Lycoming turbine engined variants.) I'm sure there's many more out there. In fact, at CRQ theres a Baron airframe that someone had the bright idea to hang a pair of turboprop engines on.

If you're ever stuck with one of these bastardized airframes you'll need all of the luck you can muster both while you own it and later when you try to sell it.

'Sled