Ruining a perfectly good engine

[Rickinlexky]

Now I have a reason to buy more stuff that doesn't work for display projects: thanks?


BTW, nice results.

!!!

 

[Rickinlexky]

but you are showing counterclockwise, and most propellers are clockwise. There are special propellers for twin engine planes .

No, it’s clockwise to the engine. Counterclockwise to a viewer looking from the front.

 

[woodchucker]

No, it’s clockwise to the engine. Counterclockwise to a viewer looking from the front.

You are correct. I just looked at all my propellers, damn .. memory don't fail me now.

 

[Rickinlexky]

You are correct. I just looked at all my propellers, damn .. memory don't fail me now.

Oops =

 

[Rickinlexky]

I have seen that engine fly up at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in NY. You have to shut and start the magneto for landings. Quite a lot of concentration to do it right. I guess that's why so many flipped or ground looped.

edit: over the years, quite a number of the museum pieces have crashed. Mostly because those planes are more difficult than people think. Those pilots are quite good putting on regular shows with different aircraft. Great show for the kids.

Ours is actually older than the on/off spark controlled model, which was introduced in 1913 as a safety improvement. Ours has a carburetor on it with a throttle, and the intake valves are in the piston heads. The safety issue was that if an intake valve stuck open, the fire from the combustion chamber would ignite a crankcase full of fuel/air mixture and then blow a jet of flame out the carburetor, which was inside a wood and fabric airplane. The details of how they fixed this are too complicated to relate, but it involved removing the carburetor and just pulling air in through the hollow crank; and it solved the backfire problem, but left them with no throttle to control the engine. So the ones used in WWI were as you describe, wide-open or off, and touchy to control on landing.