Turbine Powered RV

[KigAir]

Here are some videos of a turbine powered RV. Sweet ....http://www.innodyn.com/aviation/action.html

 

[Ollie]

Very cool, but I wonder what the actual performance increase is versus cost. The 255hp model is over $36,000! For that price, you could get a much higher output piston engine that would counter the weight savings with additional horsepower. Nothing beats that turbine sound though!

 

[KigAir]

A friend of mine is considering putting one of these in his LancAir that he is building. He is looking at it more from a reliability view rather than performance.

 

[USMCmech]

Very cool, but I wonder what the actual performance increase is versus cost. The 255hp model is over $36,000! For that price, you could get a much higher output piston engine that would counter the weight savings with additional horsepower. Nothing beats that turbine sound though!

Actually Vans website quotes IO-360s at 33,500$ (and that's with a discount).


In a few years I would definatly be willing to pay an extra 3K for an extra 55 Hp and turbine reliability.

 

[Cpt. Underpants]

.....

 

[ackattacker]

...and a fuel flow of "7 GPH/100 HP"? Not worth it. /QUOTE]

And extremely doubtful. They are "hesitant to release actual fuel flow numbers". Probably because you'd have a heart attack. If you believe this, then their single-spool single-compressor design is more fuel efficient than any commercial turboprop design I'm aware of. At sea level, a PT6 gets somewhere around 11-12 GPH/100HP. A PT121 gets maybe 9-10 GPH/100HP down low and about 8 GPH/100 HP at a reasonable altitude of maybe 12,000 feet.

other dubious statements from their website:

"Innodyn Turbines run on a single shaft, meaning that there is not a long lag between power application and delivery of thrust"

Huh? actually, direct drive turbines have much MORE lag, not less. They are apparantely overcoming this by using direct control of propeller pitch to adjust power, with the fuel control maintaining 100% RPM (sort of like a helicopter with autothrottle). The downside to this will be extremely poor efficienty at anything but 100% power. And if you thought a Garrett was loud on the ramp, this should be the best kerosene-to-noise converter yet.

"We currently estimate that the Turbines will not require overhaul before 5,000 hours."

Pretty optomistic for a new design. PT6's generally recommend what, 3500 hours? Of course, this can be pushed to 7000+ with trend monitoring, frequent hot sections, compressor washes, etc.

OK, so it's still a cool little turbine. I just wish these companies would inject a little realism into their marketing hype.

 

[FracCapt]

The Innodyn has been in the works for many years, and I've been following it for a few years. They've delayed several times, and then when they said they were going to have an independent organization run the numbers for power and fuel consumption, they wouldn't release those numbers after the fact. They have some big claims, but I doubt they can live up to them.

I do hear, however, that if you are interested in one of their engines, you are more than welcome to go visit their facility(I know several guys that have shown up unannounced) and they will show you around and speak to you as long as you would like. Usually it's the Pres or VP of the company that does the tour.

One of the big problems is that these engines are designed to run at 100%, so the prop has to be electrically operated variable pitch. For the RV line, that's not a good prop...as they're not generally recommended for aerobatic applications. Pitch change is pretty slow based on my limited experience with MT electric variable pitch props.

 

[KigAir]

Pitch change is pretty slow based on my limited experience with MT electric variable pitch props.

With electric variable pitch props, what happens if you lose the electrical system? Does the prop remain at the current pitch?

 

[FracCapt]

With electric variable pitch props, what happens if you lose the electrical system? Does the prop remain at the current pitch?

On the MT electric props, yes. Those are the only ones I'm familiar with. One of the procedures if the prop is not doing as desired is to pull the CB, which will freeze it at current pitch.

 

[Tram]

Hmm.. that's pretty sweet.. Sure beats the Predator conversion..