Awesome and gorgeous, amazing capabilities and so good looking. Thank you for such a detailed walk around and review of it’s features and specifications.
Dude this is such a beautiful turboprop. Looks like a dream come true. According to wiki there were only 20 of these ever built. 350 mph and 6000ft/min climb rate. 35000 ft max ceiling. Badass. A real aviation gem. Absolutely beautiful.
That’s probably right. The same designer designed my airplane. Radial Rocket . He’s great at designing good airplanes but he’s terrible at marketing and supporting them . There’s only five of mine flying in the world now.
Well presented. In 2008 I met what I think was the first Turbine Legend on their way to Oshkosh. That one is pressurized. I do not remember the performance numbers but I do remember being highly impressed.
To fly fast you have to fly high. To fly high you need you need pressurization. The power to weight ratio and aerodynamics of the Legend should take it to about 640 km/h, but unless you wear a pressure suit you are not getting there on this legend. This thing will run out of air for the pilot before it runs into the Coffin Corner.
Dwight Looi Aerospace physiology and aerodynamics are not your strong suit. Also, most aircraft in the world do not reference Km or Km/hr. Distance is measured in NM and speed is in knots or MPH. This aircraft could achieve 330 KTAS at FL250. This is 15 KTAS shy of the 640KM/H you stated. At FL250, Sea level arterial PPO2 is easily achieved with a helmet/mask and 100% O2. The ability to make thrust from a propeller drops significantly above FL280. If one desired to fly that high, a pressure demand oxygen system could be used to maintain acceptable levels of O2 saturation, but it would be fatiguing. However this altitude is nowhere near that requiring a pressure suit. The only time one would need to consider a pressure suit is flight above 50000ft. At altitudes above the Armstrong line, pressure suits are required. FL250 is nowhere near that. Lastly you mentioned coffin corner. This region of high speed flight is approached only by swept wing turbojet and turbofan aircraft. Turboprop aircraft have too much drag to approach any kind of Mach limiting speed and I am not aware of any turboprop aircraft that even have an installed Mach meter. Also, as mentioned before, propeller aircraft can not achieve the altitudes required to get into the coffin corner.
@@Stepclimb (1) Tell that to the TU-95 an aircraft with roughly the same power to weight ratio as a Catalyst engined Legend would be. (2) The coffin corner has nothing to do with approaching Mach 1 per say; it has everything to do with flying high enough and fast enough that the air is so thin that to not stall you have to stay above a certain speed, yet you no longer have the ability to stay above that speed. (3) Turboprops get more efficient with altitude because drag is reduced and the intake air is very cold. Think of the turbo prop as a VERY high bypass turbofan or an unducted fan. They are VERY efficient even at high altitudes. They simply are not very efficient at very high speeds because there is no "duct" to force the air into a constriction and increase the exhaust velocity. Nonetheless 700-800km/h is very realistic for propellers with enough horsepower behind it. 750km/h is the speed piston engined fighters attain at high altitudes (~40,000 ft). To get there though, you need enough wing so you don't stall out and a pressurized cabin.
Ever thought of stuffing a GE Catalyst engine in the Legend? 1,600 hp through a McCauley 5-bladed prop will be very interesting and certainly give those heavy "warbirds" a run for their Merlin or Double Wasp dollars. May need to lengthen the tail with a plug... maybe call it a Long Nose Legend?
Well, Rene'.... I just happened across this after Demoing the Kodiak and American Kodiak had a Walkaround link to Erik Johnson. After viewing the Kodiak Walkaround this popped up, You should have given us a heads up that you're an aviation celebrity now - HA!
nice one Erik, are you going to video a flight in that wonderful machine. that would be cool. on another note a flight in the jet provost would be better. keep up the excellant work.
I remember back in the day working in Olathe Ks that this was being developed in the back of the hanger at it did its first flight with a big block chevy on it but the guys could never get it financially of the ground
No....not close to 500. Many older WW2 propeller planes are substantially faster than the Legend....in part because they have upwards of 2000 HP rather than 730....
Wrong. Beta is a range the power lever can be moved within... Below that used in flight (the flight range is alpha range: the range that the power lever can be moved in during the flight regime). Most turbo props have a weight on wheels switch that only allow the power lever to be moved from the alpha range to the beta range when there is weight on the respective wheel and there by defines the regime the aircraft is in.
