TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Dec 20, 2011 10:42 pm

Hi everyone, I've been reading a lot about VW powered kit planes and ultralights. I found it very interesting that the aircooled VW's could double as airplane engines. I have a deep seeded interest in aviation, although I'm far to poor to pursue it. I do like the idea of one day getting a pilots licenses and maybe even building my own kit plane. Its cool to think that skills developed working on my beetle could lend hand to a future aviation project. So yeah I guess I'm wondering if anyone on this board has experience with or perhaps has built of a VW powered flying machine? Also open to stories, anecdotes, information, and other comments about the subject.

Below are links to my awesome dream project plane, Kit + Engine , for about the price of a new car. Just a far out pipe dream, such a beautiful little biplane:
http://www.fisherflying.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37&Itemid=5
http://www.aeroconversions.com/products/aerovee/index.html

Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:49 am

An old friend of mine used to have a VW repair shop. One of his customers had a VW powered Gyrocopter. I got to talking to the owner for a bit. He said the VW was a good light weight power source for that contraption. If the engine failed, the forward velocity and the pitch of the blades would allow the copter to glide down to earth. He had a term for that process as the rotors kept spinning. It was a neat one man craft. We never got to see it fly though.

Sat Jan 07, 2012 2:41 pm

VW powered planes are fine for 185 pound pilots living at sea level. For us WWF / NFL sized guys living at 4600 feet elevation - make mine Lycoming

the autogyro term is "autorotation", but learn the rather less pleasant term "buntover" before you strap on an older gyro like a Bensen

check out the Texas Parasol:

http://home.earthlink.net/~cavelamb/parasol.htm

http://www.ultralightnews.com/plansbuyerguide/texasparasol-aircraftplans.html

http://www.murrayjohnson.com/parasol.htm

Wed Jan 11, 2012 5:52 am

Hi! There is the Volksplane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evans_VP-1_Volksplane . A good listing of projects can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_air-cooled_engine . And there are of course companies that modify VW- engines for aircraft use, the best known probably Limbach: http://www.limflug.de/index.php?page=home&lang=eng . Probably the last and highest developed is the 2.4 litres water/aircooled engine, the last evolution stage of Franz Xaver Reimspiess´s design.

Here in Germany as in the whole of Europe there are a lot of Microlights that are VW- powered.

The 2l four valve Diesel was modified into an aero engine and flown in a Ruschmeyer R90 airframe. The development was initiated and led by the same man who was responsible for the development of this car engine. He is by the way pilot of a Klemm-107, a Yak 50 and an Exec Rotorway.

Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:22 am

I have flown an Ultra Pup 2 place VW powered airplane. It is too heavy to be registered as an ultralight and is registered as a single engine land plane. The engine was 75hp and was very adequate. Short take off and landing (STOL) and looked similar to a Piper J3 Cub.