Corvair

Google found this image. If it's yours let me know so I can name it and link back

Google found this image. If it's yours let me know so I can name it and link back

This aircraft with a WilliamWynne nosebowl

From ContactMagazine. Lots of caption info in the pic

Some personal thoughts about why a Corvair engine for my project:

The industry standard in the LSA world at the moment is the Rotax 912 or 914. It's reliable, light and expensive. Since I'm not made of money, I knew I would have to find an alternative. Other aviation engines are similarly priced to the Rotax, so automotive engines, which are priced lower because millions of vehicles are sold, is the logical route to go, considering price point. The problem with automotive engines is that they are automotive engines and from a design perspective are not optimized for aviation use. Unfailingly, they are complicated to convert and liquid cooled installations often require a substantial amount of tweaking to keep light and still fly cool.

The Corvair offers solid performance for the weight, is similar to an O-200, has a large online pool of people who have not only worked with the engine, but are actually flying behind Corvairs, and the CorvairListServe provides no-punches-pulled technical information. This latter point doesn't mean that it is flame-war city, but rather that advice isn't sugar coated as it is on many other sites where you'd swear you could buy a 45 pound 300HP engine if everything were to be believed. If your 'brilliant' idea for an installation is unlikely to work, you'll get a bunch of people telling you that its a lame idea and probably is likely to lead to safety-of-flight issues - and someone on the list will own up to having tried it and shown that it didn't work. Often that kind of testing has been done by WilliamWynne, who's site The Corvair Authority, is a trove of information about how to safely and practically get into the air with a Corvair engine.

Some info from the WW site: The Corvair engine is a 164 cubic inch (2,700cc), six-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, direct-drive, air-cooled powerplant. GM produced 1.7 million Corvair automobiles between 1960 and 1969. Corvair engines have been powering experimental aircraft since 1960.

Ultimately, the Corvair engine represents an opportunity to me to get into the air relatively cost effectively and safely, but along with that, and no less importantly, it offers a way for me to learn about my powerplant, maintain it in future and by learning about the powerplant, make flying a safer experience. Knowledge is, after all, power. Progress on sourcing, tearing down, rebuilding and transforming a car engine into an aviation powerplant can be found at CorvairBuild.