Corvair Power, flying on the Corvair Aircraft Engine, Corvair College's William Wynne.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- www.ultralightf... - Corvair Power, flying on the Corvair Aircraft Engine, Corvair College's William Wynne.
By Dan Johnson,
I've often written about Rotax, Jabiru, Continental, and UL Power. One that I've left out of the review has been William Wynne's Corvair-based powerplant and I am pleased to correct that oversight.
Five Corvair-powered Zenith kit-built aircraft flew into the 2014 Open Hangar Day event and parked together for this photo in front of the airport terminal building.
Wynne reports that he has been continuously building, testing and flying Corvair engines for 25 years, since 1989 (by the way, longer than Zenith has been located in Mexico). At last count his company reports that their engines power about 500 aircraft.
William earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Professional Aeronautics and is the holder of an Airframe & Powerplant certificate from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Of his Corvair engine conversion, he wrote, "My extensive testing over the years indicates [this engine can provide] 100-120 horsepower with the degree of reliability necessary for flight engines." This power range suits it perfectly for light kit aircraft in the age of Light-Sport. You might wonder why he chose to use the Corvair engine and the answer might surprise you.
Chevrolet's Corvair engine is a six cylinder, horizontally-opposed piston engine used in the 1960s-era Corvair automobile. Wikipedia reported, "It was a highly unusual engine for General Motors [in that] it was air-cooled and used a flat design with aluminum heads and crankcase." My video partner added this, "Few people know it, but the General Motors Corvair engine was developed for GM by a company called Eastern Aviation.
GM was after a light helicopter contract from the government, and had Eastern Aviation develop this engine as a powerplant." He continued, "GM never got that contract and in an attempt to compete with the European sport/touring car manufacturers, General Motors decided to use the engine and launched a small sports car to be powered by an air-cooled engine similar to the VW Beetle.
Between 1960 and 1969 GM manufactured and sold 1,700,000 of the rear-engine, compact cars. Approximately two million engines were built." Read much more detail about the Corvair engine at Light Sport Aircraft Pilot.
Before Zenith's event this year, William Wynne held another of his four-day Corvair College seminars. "We had 74 people attend and 11 of them fully assembled and test ran their engine," reported Wynne, adding that "about 25 more made good progress." He indicated that this was the second Corvair College he and Zenith Aircraft's Sebastien Heintz have collaborated on before the airplane company's open house.
Working seminars of this sort are meant to assist builders but also serve education and marketing purposes. A few caveats: Most aviators and builders realize that General Motors and Chevrolet do not authorize the use of Corvair engines for use in aircraft.
Wynne's FlyCorvair enterprise is not affiliated with the car company. Corvair conversions are not type certificated and have not attempted to meet ASTM standards for Light-Sport Aircraft.
In addition to putting on Corvair College, William visits his builders. "I have made hundreds of house calls," he reported. As an example, the nearby photo shows Wynne (on left) making a house call to customer Larry Winger in California. "His engine ran at Corvair College #18," said William. "Larry's aircraft is a magnificent Zenith CH-650, built from plans, not a kit.
The aircraft has since been completed and has been moved to the Chino airport. Larry exemplifies many of the finest qualities in homebuilding. When he started the project, he had never built an engine, a plane and was not yet a pilot. He has since accomplished all three." According to many Corvair engine installers, Wynne often inspires his builders.
www.ultralightf... Video and Audio content is Copyright © The Ultralight Flyer Video Magazine. This video and audio material may not be reproduced in any form without written permission.
Help support The Ultralight Flyer Video Magazine by subscribing to our PAID subscription video magazine at www.ultralightf...
Thank You for your continued support!
TAGS:
corvair, flycorvair, flycorvair com engines for sale, flycorvair.com flycorvair.net, william wynne, corvair college, flycorvair shop, flycorvair turbo, flycorvair fuel injection, flycorvair exhaust, flycorvair youtube, flycorvair oil, flycorvair fuel pump, corvaircraft, corvair aircraft engine,
www.ultralightf... - Corvair Power, flying on the Corvair Aircraft Engine, Corvair College's William Wynne.
• Corvair Power, flying ...
WYNNE speaks better than do many broadcasters
Dan likes to hear himself talk. Still, all-in-all, a good video.
What happened to the stock Corvair turbocharged engine. Is it incapable of being converted for use as an aircraft powerplant?
The carburetor is really not suitable, also the old turbo is suck through and rather lag prone. It tends to make boost above 3000 RPM. Chevy also used small valves and low compression in the turbo to make it work on the street and respond decently when off boost. You can turbo one, and Wynne does so, but it is best to start from scratch.
$10,000 for a freshly rebuilt, turnkey Corvair engine from this guy. Ok how much does a 912 Rotax with similar output cost?
About $20.000
More like $$$$$$ 35,000
$30K or so.
6 cylinders is the way to go.. I hate to teach on 4 cylinder engines. They vibrate more, and if you lose one, like it happened to me, you wont climb at all. I was just taking off, then at around 200 agl. Suddenly i was climbing at around 250 feet per minute and the vibration was shaking the instruments and ASI was unreadable. Luckily i was sharp on turning back to opposite runway from 300 agl and did it. A 4 cylinder will lose more power if lose one cylinder than a 6 cylinder and the vibration will be more. Go 6 cylinder instead like this Corvair Engine. They are not overprized and overrated like the other 4 cylinder dangerous..
What holds the Crankshaft in place when the propeller pulls on it ???since those bearing were designed for radial loads
stealhty1 The conversion includes a large 5th bearing in a billet housing on the front of the crankshaft bolted onto the case. This oil pressurized bearing carries all the flight loads of the propellor and transfers it to the case, allowing the four main bearings to carry the radial loads.
where do you get the parts for conversion
This video will answer your question for you. ua-cam.com/video/RTDlWSBQ-DU/v-deo.html
The 5th bearing is an option. There are Corvairs flying that don't have the 5th bearing.
The thrust bearing Wynn designed and adds to the engines.
The corvair engine is built the way the Volkswagen should have been built
Of course, the VW is nearly three decades prior.
The Corvair engine is a cheap, miserable version of the somewhat later Porsche 911 engine.
www.flycorvair.com doesn't work.
It works for me. His other web site is www.flycorvair.net
Works for me
The entire website is hard to use. Really needs a remake