Ivan and I flew GK Whip today with the new cowling and cooling system I've been
designing. Single radiator and cleaned up behind the propeller. The object is to
reduce the cooling drag and interference behind the prop of the old system. The
inlet area of the standard system is about 60 sq inches. The new one lets in
about 24 sq ins. and the radiator is 45 sq ins. It works, I'm delighted to say,
Not all the air goes through the rad because I was nervous about removing the
heat from the exhaust system and also ducted 8 sq ins to the cylinder fins. All
of that was inspired guesswork so you can imagine how pleased I am that it
confirms all the assumptions. I suspect the rad could be even smaller.
Confirmation also came from comparison with Michel Colombin's BanBi (produced as
the MCR01 kit) which is very impressive.
We aren't seeing much performance improvement yet but that will come with
refinement I'm sure. One big advantage, though is the view over the nose :-)
Actually got some praise from our leader for that (!:-)
Graham
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