The A2A Simulations Community

My personal favourite is the B377, but it is only for FSX. The Connie is much newer in the A2A lineup.
They are both wonderful aircraft.

The Strat. The Connie is lovely. But the Strat just has something special about it.

What do you guys think of a Piston-fan engine?
It’s like a Turbofan, but is powered by a piston or a radial engine.

CookerCook wrote: ↑15 Oct 2020, 18:49 What do you guys think of a Piston-fan engine?
It’s like a Turbofan, but is powered by a piston or a radial engine.

It sounds to me like a solution looking for a problem.

flapman wrote: ↑15 Oct 2020, 22:15

CookerCook wrote: ↑15 Oct 2020, 18:49 What do you guys think of a Piston-fan engine?
It’s like a Turbofan, but is powered by a piston or a radial engine.

It sounds to me like a solution looking for a problem.

Kindly explain. Not to tick you off or anything. Honestly, I am a bit curious.

Fan...like in a ducted fan or???

CookerCook wrote: ↑15 Oct 2020, 18:49 What do you guys think of a Piston-fan engine?
It’s like a Turbofan, but is powered by a piston or a radial engine.

Oh dear lord no...

-Esa

CookerCook wrote: ↑16 Oct 2020, 01:03 Kindly explain. Not to tick you off or anything. Honestly, I am a bit curious.

Well I had to crack open the aerodynamics book, but I'll try my best.
The first check of the idea is what I could call the "sanity check." As in, if this really is a useful idea, why has nobody tried it (they spend millions of dollars on this type of stuff)? And why hasn't the industry adopted it? With the development of piston aero engines this was never a priority... I suspect because there was always somewhere else that could be better improved.

The next question, is why do turbojet engines need fans in the first place? The answer is bypass ratio. A jet engine gets terrible fuel economy unless some of the air is allowed to bypass the combustion chamber. That's why the fan exists. So, it's a solution to the problem of jet engine fuel efficiency. When you delete the jet engine, you delete the entire concept of bypass ratio, and thus the entire need for a fan. What's the bypass ratio of air moved by a propeller, vs the amount of air that leaves the exhaust stack of the piston engine driving it?

That leaves you with a big useless duct which the airplane has to drag through the air. I did find this though:



From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_XMC

Phase III - Model 1034 - June 1972
Use of shrouded propeller to test improvements in propeller efficiency and reduction of noise

Test results

The XMC project ended in 1972. The aircraft configuration proved to have higher cabin noise levels than the production Cessna 150 and offered no performance advantages over the older design.[2]

The simplest explanation boils down to simple issues: fans need huge amounts of power when pushing large mass flows of highly accelerated air. We've seen piston engines of up to several thousand horsepower but they tend to be unreliable and cumbersome in airplane applications. And when speaking of usual fan applications, we are not talking about thousands of horsepower, but about tens of thousands. The gas turbine is the only proven reliable mean to provide such power in a package of reasonable weight and size. For a surprise if looking into the future from the '40ies, they do that in highly reliable manner as well.

-Esa

I never would’ve appreciated War Planes, General Aviation and old analogue gauge aircraft if it wasn’t for A2A.

CookerCook wrote: ↑17 Oct 2020, 11:44 I never would’ve appreciated War Planes, General Aviation and old analogue gauge aircraft if it wasn’t for A2A.

Tbh I am a little similar hehe

Lewis - A2A wrote: ↑19 Oct 2020, 05:19

CookerCook wrote: ↑17 Oct 2020, 11:44 I never would’ve appreciated War Planes, General Aviation and old analogue gauge aircraft if it wasn’t for A2A.

Tbh I am a little similar hehe

All I’m saying is, A2A really puts the real in realism. I cannot wait for the first A2A addon to come out of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.