Absolutely fascinating stuff!
A good bit of the talk was about his adventure of flying over Mt Everest in a para motor.
The previous height record for a para motor was 17,000 ft.
He had to design and build an engine capable of 30,000 ft.
He did it in a very short time scale and ended up with a single rotor, rotary engine which was heavily supercharged. (3 bar pressure)
It weighed 25kg and produced 100hp - a first for power to weight.
He was partnered with Bear Grylls and Bear was the one who flew over Everest after Gilo's engine lost power on the climb up due to the supercharger drive belt breaking.
The twin rotor shown below weighs just 22kg (block, including alternator and starter) and puts out a peak power of 210hp, (yes you read that right) with a max continuous of 150hp.
A smaller single rotor engine of 40hp will go into the new eGo. A Sub 115kg aircraft that is nearing first flight here in Cambridge, UK.
Rotron have over come the two big drawbacks of a rotary engine: Heat (internal) and oil consumption.
They do this by having cold air (with a mist of oil in it) pump around the engine (through the gold port covers you see below). This air cools the internals of the engine and also is compressed (effectively like a supercharger) before being introduced into the combustion chamber.
The oil consumption is now down to 400:1
Also they use ceramic seals which never wear out and are not affected by heat.
More about Rotron here: http://www.rotronaero.com/
And the eGo here: http://www.e-goaeroplanes.com/all-the-latest/
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| 22kg, 200hp |
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| Rotron founder Gilo Gardozo |
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| eGo, 115kg empty weight |
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| Prototype is nearly ready for first flight |
210hp on a Twister... is it possible?
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