Archive of Weekly Updates
October - December, 2003
2003-12-29
- We hope all of our friends and supporters enjoyed a happy holiday.
- Recalibrated the engine to reduce the high exhaust temperatures at
high rpm, low throttle conditions.
- At the end of the above recalibration, the engine at full throttle
suddenly experienced a significant drop in oil pressure. Thanks to our
auxiliary engine/control oil pump, we did not lose pressure completely
and as a result do not believe we did any damage to the engine. We are
pulling the engine this week to determine and correct the cause of the
pressure loss.
- Corrected some software and electronic problems, including the flapping
sensor and the automatic turbo waste gate controller.
2003-12-22
- We dodged a bullet! While running in the test pit, the propeller
pitch push-pull shaft failed. We were running at full power without
the top cowling installed. The difference in the airflow between the
smooth fuselage on the bottom and the uncowled engine on the top made
for a very unbalanced load on the propeller, which put a large moment
on the push-pull shaft and caused it to fail. The propeller then increased
pitch until it hit a temporary pitch stop which was set at less than
full stroke in case of an in flight autocontrol failure during this
test period. Had the temporary stop not been installed, the propeller
cuff would have cut the spar causing first one, then the other blade
to come off. This would have created an unbalanced load on the engine
drive and torn up the aft section of the fuselage. We have redesigned
the shaft to handle higher moments, and should have the aircraft back
in the test pit this week.
- Installed a larger, single oil cooler, replacing the two-cooler setup
that we had before. The new cooler is 1.7 times the size of one of the
previous coolers.
- Recalibrated the engine to correct a problem of high in-flight engine
exhaust temperatures when running at high rpm and partial throttle.
This problem did not show up in the static tuning in the test pit, since
we could not achieve those rpms at those throttle settings without forward
airspeed.
- Have begun receiving parts for our 600-HP engine to test the scimitar
propeller.
- We will not be flight-testing this week due to the Christmas holiday
and a few remaining modifications based on lessons learned in our past
few flights. We expect to be flying again next week.
- Last week, company president, Jay Carter, was out visiting with the
military and 2 aerospace companies.
- Carter's chief test pilot, Larry Neal, was invited to fly his autogyro,
the Butterfly, at the Centennial of Flight celebration in Kittyhawk.
He was one of only a few non-military pilots to actually fly at the
event.
- The CarterCopter has its first cover shot! The first photo of the
newly restored CCTD released for publication will appear on the cover
of Trade-A-Plane's first January issue. The photo was taken during the
most recent flight-testing last weekend. Trade-A-Plane has been the
leading aviation marketplace publication since 1937 and has thousands
of avid readers. We are excited to receive this recognition.
2003-12-15
- As the First 100 Years of Aviation draw to a close this week, we
honor Orville and Wilbur Wright for the inventive genius that gave us
the gift of flight. We also celebrate the 80th Anniversary of Juan de
la Cierva and his development of the rotorcraft. These aviation giants
laid the foundation for Carter Technology and we join the entire aviation
community in expressing our regard for the spirit and tenacity that
ultimately proved man could fly like a bird. As we enter the 2nd Century
of Flight, we are truly moving forward on the accomplishments of all
aviation pioneers and their dedication to their dream of flight.
- We continued flight testing this week. Chief test pilot, Larry Neal,
reports that the aircraft is flying better than it ever has. The new
automated collective control works great; he doesn't have to touch collective
from takeoff until the landing flair.
- Found a problem with oil temperatures running too high, so we moved
the oil coolers to the bottom of the aircraft, added an air scoop to
feed the oil coolers with fresh air, and increased the outlet area of
the cowling to eliminate any restriction. This seems to have corrected
the problem.
- Made several tweaks to the computer programs that run the automated
controls.
- Failed an oil cooler on Saturday when the pilot tried taxiing while
the oil temperature was still low. Because of the low temperature, when
the pilot revved the engine the oil pressure became so high it failed
the oil cooler. We ran off of the one remaining cooler the rest of the
day, and because of the low air temperature, the oil temperature was
okay. Once the oil reached its operating temperature, oil pressure was
fine. We will replace the failed cooler this week.
- We will not be flight testing this week. Our chief test pilot, Larry
Neal, has been invited to fly his autogyro, the Butterfly, at Kittyhawk
for the Centennial of Flight celebration. Our company president, Jay
Carter, is visiting Washington, D.C. later this week to meet with several
military and government officials. This down time will allow us to make
several small modifications to the aircraft that we learned from flight
testing.
2003-12-08
- We took the aircraft to Olney last week to begin flight testing again.
We spent two days going over systems to verify that everything was working
properly, and made modifications to the radio and computer system prior
to flight testing. Bob Stark helped us to reduce interference to the
radios caused by the computer wiring.
- On Saturday, we flew our first traffic pattern, reaching a maximum
altitude of 900 ft AGL, and a maximum airspeed of 108 mph. We climbed
out at 700-800 feet per minute at 95 mph with the landing gear extended.
The pilots really like the extra horsepower from the turbocharged engine.
We were forced to land after only one pattern because oil temperatures
were getting up to 250ºF. Water temperatures were fine, staying
at a steady 202ºF. We will have a full press release including
photos once we have made a few more flights.
- Photos from Saturday's flights:
First Hop:
Photo 1,
Photo 2,
Photo 3
First Traffic Pattern:
Photo 1,
Photo 2,
Photo 3,
Photo 4,
Photo 5
- Modified the cowling near the turbo. Originally, there was no gap
between the insulation on the turbo and the insulation on the cowling.
The direct contact caused the cowling to overheat in that area. The
modification reduced the thickness of the cowling in that area so that
there is now a gap.
- Work continued on the DARPA funded rotor. We completed the mold for
the tip leading edge weight, and put the caps and windings on the rotor
spar.
2003-12-01
- We hope all of our friends and supporters enjoyed a happy Thanksgiving
holiday.
- We replaced the prerotator belt and modified the mechanism for more
idler pulley travel.
- Continued to check out aircraft systems in the pit, and have made
a few modifications to the aircraft per those tests. We have a few modifications
and fixes remaining, but hope to take the aircraft to Olney to start
flight testing this week.
- The pilots visited, checked the aircraft out, and performed several
rotor spinups and simulated takeoffs. Other than a few suggestions,
they have given the aircraft the okay.
- Ran the engine several times at full throttle until oil temp exceeded
250ºF. At 400 HP (4 psi boost), the prop produced 1600 lbs. of
static thrust.
- Finished trimming rotor skins of DARPA funded rotor and started making
the tip leading edge weight plug.
- Finished machining new scimitar prop spar mold.
- Issued a Press Release for the Heliplane
Hydra-Blaster Firefighting Concept.
2003-11-21
-
The engine computer calibration has finally been completed. The engine
produces a maximum of 425 HP at 5200 RPM and 38 inches of manifold
pressure. The turbo will allow the engine to hold this horsepower
up to about 20,000 ft.
-
Both the upper and lower skins for the first blade of the new DARPA
funded rotor were completed.
-
We began our final proof testing of the aircraft systems. We completed
the rotor prerotate and automatic jump take-off blade pitch control
test. Final test involved overspeeding the rotor to 350 rpm, disengaging
the clutch, and engaging the auto pitch control which increased the
blade pitch 7 degrees in 1 second. The aircraft was tied down to the
concrete pad or it would have taken off. The operation worked as expected,
however the belt slip alarm did not function and we failed the belt
due to excessive slippage. The belt tensioner bottomed out and allowed
the belt to slip. A belt has been ordered and hopefully can be installed
Monday . A modification to the belt tensioner will be made to allow
for more travel. There is still some software tweaking to be performed
and checked. Once all the systems test are completed , which includes
a full throttle 1 hour run, we will take the aircraft to Olney for
flight testing.
-
Jay presented his a workshop entitled "Slowed-Rotor/Compound
Aircraft" at the Helicon rotorcraft conference on Monday. He
stayed in D.C. through Wednesday to attend part of the conference
and meet with several military and industry personnel.
- Completed an upgrade to the web site software. Although there is little
difference in the look of the site, it will be easier to maintain and
access.
2003-11-14
-
Jay will be presenting a workshop entitled
Slowed-Rotor/Compound Aircraft at the 2003
Helicon Conference. Jay's three-hour presentation will be given
on the evening of November 17th.
-
Carter Unveils Plans
for a Firefighting Heliplane - An adaptation kit being developed by
Carter would enable the Heliplane Transport to be quickly converted
into a phenomenal firefighter. This new capability for the heavy-lift
transport will be presented at the Helicon Conference. For more
information see Heliplane Hydra-Blaster
Firefighting Concept.
-
We installed new style EGT sensors on the engine.
-
Made two additional changes to the oil boost pump.
-
Installed
the engine back in the aircraft and did some initial tuning to make
sure everything is working. The engine appears to be running properly,
and the oil boost pump now operates correctly. We have not been able
to complete the tuning due to the weather.
-
Completed the rotor
spar for the DARPA funded extreme mu rotor.
-
On Monday Nov. 17
and Tuesday Nov. 18, there may be brief periods where the website
is unavailable or does not display properly. We will be upgrading
the software we use to run the web page.
2003-11-07
-
Disassembled
the C5-R engine and found that the problem with a cylinder not producing
compression was a failed ring, as we suspected. It appears that the
ring failed primarily because the wrist pin was placed so high on
the piston to provide clearance for a 4 inch stroke that the wrist
pin hole undercut the piston ring support. When the support gave way,
the ring failed. Higher temperatures on the piston and rings as a
result of turbocharging contributed to the failure. After talking
with several engine experts, we've learned a lot more about LS-6 engines,
and will use this knowledge to build up a new engine. We will use
most of the parts off our test stand engine, LS-6 block with std stroke
and bore, stronger racing connecting rods that includes a larger wrist
pin, heavy duty pistons with a heat reflective ceramic coating on
the top and a hard surface low friction coating on the piston skirts,
combined with ported heads and inconel valves from the C5-R engine,
as the new engine for the aircraft. We plan to use only as much
turbo boost as required to produce 400 hp - our oversized turbo should
provide this boost up to 20,000 ft. Rather than compromise the
design of this engine block by increasing its stroke, we are told
it is better to increase the boost slightly to obtain the same hp.
The engine has been reassembled and will be installed in the aircraft
starting this weekend. We hope to recalibrate the engine computer
next week.
-
Modified
the inlet and outlet of the intercooler to reduce its pressure drop.
This will reduce the back pressure on the engine, reduce the turbo
exit temperature and the temperature out of the intercooler and into
the engine.
-
Replaced
the water/oil cooler with a second air/oil cooler along with new baffling.
-
Incorporated
a fix (we hope) for the drop in oil boost pressure at high rpms as
reported last week.
-
Finished
the "Slowed Rotor Compound Aircraft" workshop presentation
that Jay Carter will be giving at the Helicon
Conference on Nov. 17th.
2003-10-31
- We've had a major setback. We completed our engine calibration up
to 5200 rpm when we suddenly experienced excessive crankcase pressure.
A compression test revealed that one of the cylinders would only produce
30 psi. We will need to pull the engine out of the aircraft and tear
it down to find the exact cause. We expect the problem to be with the
rings as the valves and rocker arms all seem to be OK. The repair could
include an engine redesign and rebuild.
- The vanes that were added to the 90º manifold inlet elbow did help
with the problem of uneven air distribution in the intake manifold which
was causing a wide variation in cylinder exhaust temperatures. However
even with a smaller variation in exhaust temperatures, at 5200 rpm and
7 psi boost pressure, we had to run so rich to keep the exhaust temperatures
below 1650º that we again had a problem with one of the cylinders not
firing. The underlying problem we believe is related to a high pressure
drop across the intercooler which forces the turbo to work harder than
it should. This causes excessive back pressure on the engine exhaust
and increases the temperature going into both the intercooler and into
the manifold. This in turn causes predetonation, which means the spark
had to be retarded which further increases the exhaust temperatures
- a vicious circle.
- The oil boost pump was not cavitating at the high rpms as we had previously
thought. After talking with the manufacturer, we believe the problem
has to do with some floating plates that ride against the face of the
gears. The design of these floating plates requires a higher pressure
to operate properly than what we require. We are working on a fix.
- The rotor spar mandrel was completed.
- Work is continuing on the prop spar mold.
- The Fall issue of Vertiflight is dedicated to autogyros. We
are pleased to have been included in a feature article by Raymond Robb.
- Most recent press releases:
2003-10-08- Carter Postpones mu-1 Barrier
Attempt
10/06/2003- CarterCopter Rebuilding Update
2003-10-27
- We believe we've discovered the causes of the problem of a cylinder
dropping out at 4800 rpm. On the air intake, there was a 90º elbow just
before the throttle body that was disturbing the airflow enough that
the air wasn't being distributed evenly. We were also running rather
rich in an effort to keep exhaust gas temperatures low. The combination
of these two things made the mixture so rich in certain cylinders that
it would not ignite. To correct this, we've added vanes to the elbow
to direct the air, and we've made the mixture slightly leaner. We installed
Inconel valves to handle the higher exhaust temperatures from the leaner
mixture.
- While the engine was apart, we discovered a slight interference between
the exhaust valves and the pistons, but we did not see any signs of
damage. The pistons were ground to give the necessary clearance.
- We installed several pressure and temperature sensors to the intake
and exhaust systems to aid in diagnosing the engine during further tuning.
We will continue tuning this week.
- The oil boost pump was cavitating at higher rpm, so it was remachined
and the pulley changed to reduce its capacity. This should fix the problem.
- An oil to water intercooler was installed to keep oil temperatures
down.
- The hot mic was rewired with shielded wiring for a great improvement
in audio quality.
- Work continued on the prop and rotor spar molds.
- The Fall issue of Vertiflight is dedicated to autogyros. We are pleased
to
have been included in a feature article by Raymond Robb.
- Most recent press releases:
2003-10-08- Carter Postpones mu-1 Barrier
Attempt
10/06/2003- CarterCopter Rebuilding Update
2003-10-17
- Jay has been invited to speak at the upcoming
Helicon conference next month. He is giving a 3 hour workshop on
the Slowed Rotor, Compound Aircraft concept.
- We continued tuning the C5-R engine. We've switched to 100LL aviation
fuel for better performance, but we're still having a problem with a
cylinder dropping out at 4800 rpm.
- Redding Machine Shop has begun fabrication of our new scimitar propeller
spar mold. It should be completed in two weeks.
- The nickel leading edge abrasion strips for the propeller have arrived.
- We have begun work on the new extreme mu rotor spar mold. We expect
to complete it by the end of next week or early the following week.
- Most recent press releases:
2003-10-08- Carter Postpones mu-1 Barrier
Attempt
2003-10-06- CarterCopter Rebuilding Update
2003-10-10
- In an effort to provide more timely information to our supporters
and Website observers we are adding a new feature to our Home Page:
"This Week at Carter." Each weekend we will give a brief summary
of the activities of the previous week and post highlights of things
to come. We hope this news feature will keep you in touch with our progress.
As always, we invite your questions and comments regarding our revolutionary
aviation technology and our development process.
- We have postponed the Mu-1 barrier attempt. Read more in the
press release.
- Jay visited with several military officials in Washington, D.C. to
discuss future Carter projects. The meetings appeared promising.
- Work has continued on tuning the new C5-R engine. We are experiencing
a problem with a cylinder dropping out at 4800 rpm, even though we've
positively tested for ignition, fuel, and compression to the cylinder.
- The right wing (the side more heavily damaged in the accident) was
test fit to the fuselage, and the joint was adjusted for a perfect fit.
There are no structural repairs remaining before flying.
- The collective control on the flight simulator has been fitted with
a hydraulic/pneumatic system to simulate the automated collective in
the aircraft.
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