Jan
2
100 MPG Airplane commentary
January 2, 2009 | Tagged aircraft, AOPA, HHO, Klaus Savier, Lycoming iE2 Nemesis, Water Burning Airplane, water injection |
According to a late December 2008 article in AOPA’s E-Pilot email publication, Klaus Savier, owner of Light Speed Engineering, a Santa Paula California based firm, has been working on a 100 mile-per-gallon airplane. For those of us in aviation, we understand this to be no small achievement. We are used to measuring aircraft fuel burn in “gallons-per-hour”, or “pounds-per-hour”, and in either case we mean a lot of them.
Klaus has apparently managed to squeeze 100 mpg out of his Rutan based VariEZE airplane using a combination of airframe and engine modifications (a novel approach not endorsed by the oil industry), and personally, my hat is off to him. I’m both a professional pilot and professional aviation mechanic, and I, among others, have been looking forward to the day when I didn’t need to even look at a magneto again. They are probably one of the most maintenance intensive and potentially troublesome pieces of any light aircraft engine, and they can’t really be adjusted for any of the variable conditions that present themselves to a reciprocating aircraft engine in flight, such as ambient air temperature, moisture content of air, pressure altitude, present power output of the engine, etc.
I am presently experimenting with water injection on one of my cars and I will soon be experimenting on the same car with HHO technology. If you don’t know what HHO stands for, go to http://waterpoweredcar.com or google ” HHO Stan Meyer “, and you’ll be presented with more information than you could ever reasonably digest about the subject. I have to say it: do not confuse HHO with water injection, as they are completely different. Water injection was used in several types of aircraft over the years, both reciprocating and jet, and generally results in better power output. When I start experimenting with HHO I will chronicle my experiments at http://HHOsaab.com .
My water injected 1989 Saab 900 SPG ( http://H2Osaab.com ) has been getting an average of about 10% better gas mileage with a simple, unrefined system I strapped under the hood, and it cost me less than $100 to build. If you are familiar with a turbocharged Saab, you know that these cars require 90.5 octane or better. Mine burns 87 octane unleaded fuel with no pre-ignition or knock while using the water injection, and of course the knock soon returns within a couple of hours of operation without it. (I believe this is due to carbon buildup presence in the combustion chambers which gets cleaned out when using water injection).
Having said all of that, I say this: How about an airplane that uses HHO technology as well as incorporating the engineering that Klaus has incorporated? Right now, there are experimenters doing it with automobile engines, with savings rates in the 50 percent range (lean gasoline burn is key, supplemented with hydrogen/oxygen derived from water), and I know of another venture that actually has a working prototype system that does it even better with a Pre-Ignition Catalytic Converter, or PICC. Heck, why not just go for broke, and throw in a Radmax™ engine, and while working all the bugs out of that, incorporate the HHO technology (which is equally applicable to diesel engines as well).
What we need are more people like Klaus Savier to stand up, and smack the Continentals and Lycomings of the world in the face for incrementally selling us slightly upgraded 1930’s technology, year after year, over and over and over again. Let’s do it, Klaus!
Jeff Bayer (contact)
http://BlogFloggers.com/AV8R
Comments
4 Comments so far
Jeff,
I agree with your post on HHO. I have been flight testing using my 2008 Glasair. Early results are promising.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2yhhIplklA
Jeff,
Have you seen the iE2 engine from Lycoming?
The Lycomng sponsored Nemesis NXT Reno race engine uses the similar technology.
See http://www.lycoming.com for more info.
Thanks David… that is awesome sir ( I checked out your site)… I don’t currently own an aircraft ( I fly other people’s… it’s a lot cheaper :-)), but I have made it a goal in my life to be part of creating one that burns nothing but water… that day is coming!
Also, thanks to you Eric for the iE2 information… I wasn’t aware of it… will check it out.
Way to go! For my experimental aircraft project (see http://ibis.experimentals.de) I’m also considering HHO experiments after the test flight phase is finished…