Always surprises me that people can still find these rotary engines for projects today,here in the UK the TBO is no more than 50 hours making operating them expensive,a nice working project you have there.
No Parachute, a book written by Arthur Gould Lee, was a firsthand account of a Pup pilot in WW1. I understand that the Pup was one of the few easy to fly crates built at that time. I love it.
The Camel gets all of the attention from “Peanuts” fans, but it seems Thomas Sopwith himself was a greater fan of the Pup. He said it had no tricks, no surprises.
In a Utube interview with Thomas.....He stated the PUP was a more predictable stable air frame.....more forgiving to the pilot.... The Camel was not..., but those traits, in the hands of a skilled and BOLD aviator made the Camel one of the most deadly planes to grace the sky in WW1. Like a wild stallion, it would take your life if you could not tame it!
The way that camera shook you would have thought it had a Harley motor in it. I know the motor is actually far more primitive. Much different than the flight of the reproductions.
I am looking for information on the interruptor, is it the white button the yoke? I know there is a synchronization gear for the machine gun but I am wondering about on take of and landing what the "blip" mechanism is. If I am not making sense I am wondering about the "clutch" like mechanism. Any info greatly appreciated.
It's not a clutch. It interrupts the ignition. As far as I know it prevents the magneto from completing the circuit and momentarily stops ignition. It's probably not much different than the on and off button I had on my old Triumph motorcycles that had magnetos.
The interrupter gear is different. It's a cam that keeps the gun from firing when the propeller is in front of it. All you'd see of that would be the cable coming from the trigger of the gun to the trigger on the yoke (which is different from the white blip button).
I think can shine a little light on the interruptor mechanism, the 'white button' on the yoke was a circuit break switch for the magneto ignition, and temporarily cut the spark to the engine to reduce power while taxiing and on landing approach. the interruptor was a mechanism for timing the machine guns to prevent them shooting off the propeller. First true device was invented by Anthony Fokker and used a cam and torque rod to block firing while the propeller blade was in line with the gun. The British device used a hydraulic system to activate firing with the cam driving the pump and therefore firing when the propeller was clear, this was designed by Rumanian George Constantinesco and was known as C.C. gear which was introduced late in 1916. Much later than the Fokker system that introduced the years of the Fokker scourge to allied pilots.I managed to source a book on eBay on early warplanes, an 'A FAWCETT' publication titled THE FIRST WAR PLANES that covered from the Wright Brothers to the end of hostilities in 1918.
What's with the long run-up? I worked on an 80 LeRhone in an original Sopwith Dove in the early 1970s and we did hardly any run-up at all. It's single ignition so there's no mag check, and lubrication is a one-way system slinging castor oil from the crank, so there's no need to warm up the oil, because you can't. If you can smell the oil and see it starting to coat the leading edge (and everything else), it's lubricating. That mechanic kept twirling his finger: what was he waiting for?
This engine doesn't have a throttle, it always runs wide-open. To control its power, the engine uses a blipmag. The pilot can press a button to blip the mag and send spark to the sparkplugs, or use a lever that fires 1 of n cylinders so the engine skips. It was the best technology could do at the time, when these engines were built carburetors were pretty bad and a variety of technical reasons prevented them from putting a throttle on the engine.
I saw both up close at the Shuttleworth Collection in England a few months ago. The Triplane has a larger cockpit and the fuselage is a bit wider. If I recall, it's also a bit harder to service them as the fuselage had to be disassembled if there was damage rather than just opened and repaired. So, the Tripe's more of its own machine rather than a Pup with an extra wing.
if a rotary engine sits for a while the piston chambers at the very bottom sit with oil pooled up in them while the ones at the very top are dry. That oil needs to be burned off before all pistons operate the same again.to stop the sputtering.
Since the rotary engine does not have a throttle per se, it's a all or nothing. I believe the sputtering you are hearing is the blip switch. The switch basically stops the engine firing, this technique is very touchy and requires a very experience pilot to know when to use. This is why radial engines were very superior as it had a throttle to control manifold pressure. I believe rotary engines also had a RPM limitation as well with centrifugal force slinging the oil out of the engine.
But maybe people wouldn’t lose their homes and life savings if they got sick. US spends more than the next ten countries on defence combined, but 10% of the population doesn’t have health insurance.
(@Rv4 Guy) But maybe people wouldn't have mortgaged their homes, squandered their life savings, were saddled with bank busting deductibles, lost the health care they already had and wanted, and ended up with substandard treatment from a doctor they couldn't choose. No one is stopping you from seeking world class medical attention from the likes of Cuba, Venezuela, Liberia, Mexico or North Korea. That’s where state of the art doctors, medications, cancer treatments and organ transplants come from, right? Sounds like Obama Care is the plan for you... I just wish the rest of us didn't have to suffer it...
Nigel 900 millions of white working class people were without health care long before the stupid borrowing spree that led to the subprime mortgage bust. You can pretend it was all their fault if it fits your personal prejudices but it doesn’t reflect reality.
