The history of aviation is full of stories about what projects and daredevils who dreamed big and woke up to a sad reality. Propeller piston speed record breaker by wannabe air racing champion David Rose
The brainchild of David Rose, a noted speed chaser with considerable bomber and fighter jet experience who wanted nothing less than to be the fastest piston-powered aviator,
the radical design made it to the construction stage but Never taken to the air and the pilot scrapped it ten years ago The aircraft is quite a sight and bears David Rose’s signature From the looks to the engineering not one but two monstrosities have made the crooked looking aircraft. Power given an engine like this is suitable for a sky-shredding 600. Add to that and you have enough power to buzz the tower as incredible as it sounds.
The overall engineering of the aircraft meant that its speed would have exceeded 600 mph, but this force would have torn apart the lightweight frame, so each engine was reduced to about half of its capacity. The mounted engines each driving their own propellers in a counter-rotating assembly were sufficient to set a speed record.
The front engine has a direct drive system to move the front prop while the rear uses a gearbox transmission to bypass its twin and turn the second propeller in two custom built fours with variable pitch hubs. Derived from straight fan technology, each 29-inch long blade is constructed from 84 carbon fiber layers for improved strength and reduced mass to reach and operate at constant RPM. was welded and covered in thin aluminum sheets
You can tell from the pictures that the plane was a very low drag high performance design with a 31 inch diameter and 12 extra inch canopy bulge with a special cooling system mounted inside the wings of the plane to handle the massive amount of engine power. The perfect solution turned out to be essentially fins doubling as radiators, with about 200 feet of tubing running 50 gallons of water inside the fins.
For aerodynamic efficiency the wings were no thicker than three inches eight centimeters.
If it had, it would have become the fastest piston-engine aircraft in the history of flight. The aircraft was ready to begin tests and trials in 2004, seven years after it took shape, but only after an unrelated incident at an air show in 2010. The Renault Air Racing Association changed the rules for all flying machines and are no longer eligible for competition. The man behind the project is equally uncompromising
With over 2,500 flight hours for the Design Air Force and a career as a civilian pilot,
David Rose remained in the aviation world after his retirement, winning four golds in the sport biplane category at the National Air Races in Reno, Nevada. Medals, a feat he accomplished over five years between 2001 and 2005 with an airplane he built in just eleven months. Bought specifically designed for high speed, this piston-engine propeller aircraft was intended to break the sound barrier. It never happened, but it served as the inspiration for David Rose’s RP-4.
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