Builders;
I am collecting stories on testing we have done here. Virtually every month for the last 24 years has brought some type of testing or data collection on the Corvair flight engine. Some tests are fairly simple, such as building a new manifold and testing the output of a simple 1 barrel automotive carb, others like building and dyno testing EFI systems were more complex. This goes on continuously. Many of the tests go undocumented, or show themselves to be fruitless or economically unusable. Many test only provide a puzzle piece that is useful on another project years later.
Most alternative engine outfits are only interested in selling stuff, and more often than not, they did almost no testing before going to market. Many companies start selling engine before the first example has flown 100 hours, and I can think of a number of now defunct companies that sold engines long before even a single example had left the ground. The common element with all of them was viewing testing as just some useless overhead that cuts into quick profit margins. We are just the opposite. Remember that teaching builders about their engine is our primary goal. A a learning focused company, reasearch, testing and evaluation has provided the very material our program is made of.
Below are links to several stories that give a glimpse of the practical testing that has always been integrated into my work with the Corvair. Just stop and think about how many time you have read in a magazine article or sales brochure that the horse power output was from “Dynamometer tests”, yet, how many times have you ever seen a picture of any of these engines actually on a dyno? Personally I have seen at least 200 claims of HP output alleged to be measured on a dyno, yet I have only seen pictures of 4 different engines on an actual dyno run. In an era were virtual everyone has a cell phone, and every one of them is a camera, why do you think that 196 companies didn’t end up with a photo of their engine? Just maybe, the only “dyno” run they did was an imaginary one for the brochure.
I have said it before, If your goal is to Buy something, any salesman will do. If you goal is to learn, build and fly, to be the master of what you are doing, they you need someone you can learn from. I am willing to share what we have learned in many years of reasearch and testing with anyone who came to experimental aviation to learn and build.
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Above, the EFI 2,700cc Corvair in 2007, at power on my dyno. The urethane wheel directly reads foot pounds of torque off the digital scale.
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Click on any title below to read the full story of that test.
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Dynamometer testing the Corvair and O-200
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Dyno testing Corvairs, 2008
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Turbocharging Corvair flight engines, Pt #1
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Turbocharging Corvair Flight engines Pt. #2
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Torque, HP and Thrust tests
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Thrust testing 85 and 100 hp engines
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Testing Turbo Corvair and Rotax 912S.
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Panther Engine propeller test
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Ignition system, experimental “E/E-T”
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In Search Of … The Economical Carburetor
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