12-17-2009, 04:29 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Master EcoModder
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Fuel economy in the air (diesel airplanes?)
So I was reading the thread I can no longer find a while ago, and the thought has been roiling around in my mind since... Most prop planes are spark-ignition, aren't they?
Has anyone ever built a diesel prop plane?
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12-17-2009, 04:40 PM
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#2 (permalink)
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Moderate your Moderation.
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Good question. I'm intrigued. (Actually, I'm Christ. Intrigued is another member.) Nonetheless, I'm interested to see what kind of information gets dragged up in this thread.
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12-17-2009, 05:17 PM
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#3 (permalink)
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...beats walking...
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...yes, diesel engines were used a lot during the 1920's-1930's:
http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache...&ct=clnk&gl=us
...on a similar note -- I'd like to know "why?" EPA-fuel economy "guidelines" haven't also been applied (shoved up?) to the aircraft industry yet?
Last edited by gone-ot; 12-17-2009 at 05:23 PM..
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12-17-2009, 05:20 PM
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#4 (permalink)
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i have to imagine diesels are somewhat differently affected by altitude since their compression ratio is much more critical to combustion
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12-17-2009, 09:08 PM
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#5 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shovel
i have to imagine diesels are somewhat differently affected by altitude since their compression ratio is much more critical to combustion
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What better excuse can there be to put a turbo on an engine. Although I was thinking in terms of a <10,000ft. type of plane.
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12-17-2009, 10:39 PM
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#6 (permalink)
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Intermediate EcoDriver
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The German Junkers bombers of WWII were diesel-powered.
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Fuel economy is nice, but sometimes I just gotta put the spurs to my pony! 
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The presence of traffic is the single most complicating factor of hypermiling. I know what I'm going to do, it's contending with whatever the hell all these other people are going to do that makes things hard.
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12-17-2009, 10:42 PM
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#7 (permalink)
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Moderate your Moderation.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shovel
i have to imagine diesels are somewhat differently affected by altitude since their compression ratio is much more critical to combustion
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That's why they make chokes.
Design the engine to run efficiently at high alt, and at low alt, it'll probably blow up, so you either set it up to only use a max amount of fuel, which is pig-rich at low alt, and perfect at high alt, or you set it up with a choke, so that it runs as a smaller displacement engine (effective displacement) at low alt, and runs "normally" at high alt.
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12-17-2009, 10:44 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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...beats walking...
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...uh, guys, two words: turbocharger and wastegate
...turbo's were usually used on ALL high-altitude engines, especially fighters.
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12-17-2009, 10:59 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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(:
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IIRC the main concern is fuel gelling and emergency air restarts, they see some real cold conditions.
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12-17-2009, 11:41 PM
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#10 (permalink)
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needs more cowbell
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theres a couple hits for diesel airplane on youtube
(mentions Vulcan Diesel at 3:50 )
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Last edited by dcb; 12-17-2009 at 11:55 PM..
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