Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/90184
Get the Air in Gracefully and Use It The dominant Formula One racer over the past few years has been Endeavor, piloted first by David Hoover and now by Steve Senegal, both of whom have won multiple Gold championships in it. Notice the clean box design and also the long prop extension. Such a long nose not only aids overall streamlining but also allows the smallish air inlets to expand at the optimal angle as they approach the plenum, leading to the greatest pressure buildup atop the cylinders. Kevin Eldridge had the only 720-inch flat-8 engine at Reno, and the cooling requirements were met ade- quately by this baffle system that sits independent of the outer cowl. Notice the large volume and the fact that both inlets feed into the plenum; no matter whether the inlet is on the up or down side of the prop's travel, all cylinders will get equal cooling. Notice also the clean, close-fitting exhausts. Slower airplanes? Perhaps their designers know they already have so much drag that they don't feel it's nec- essary to do any fancy ductwork and plenum-building. This example, photographed in Alaska in 2004, shows a "suboptimal" solution that apparently works just fine, in its application. At Reno in 2005, Will Mathews campaigned his Silver- winning "twin-engine" O-300-powered White Lightning. Notice that metal makes a great plenum, too: There is no air wasted in this superbly fitted air box. This unusual upward-exiting baffling works. It's on the fastest biplane in the world—Tom Aberle's Phantom. Aberle goes more than 260 mph around a tight course, with an O-360 and fixed gear and prop; cooling drag Photography by Tim Kern EAA EXPERIMENTER 43