BeechTalk - BT - Raptor Aircraft 5 Seat Pressurized 3,600 NM Range Diesel

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 08:59

Username Protected wrote:

John, comparing Peter to the Wright Bros. is beneath you. The Wright Bros were steeped in science. They developed thrust profiles on their propeller blades. Peter is not worthy to be discussed in the same sentence with the Wright Brothers.

No comparison.

Yeah but the Raptor is faster and has more seats than the Wright Flyer

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 09:10

Both airplanes flew many early flights in ground effect.

Both airplanes had some uncertainty as to who would be the pilot of the first flight.

Neither airplane had an accurate airspeed indicator.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 09:12

Username Protected wrote:

John, comparing Peter to the Wright Bros. is beneath you. The Wright Bros were steeped in science. They developed thrust profiles on their propeller blades. Peter is not worthy to be discussed in the same sentence with the Wright Brothers.
No comparison.

here's another key difference

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 09:30

Username Protected wrote:

here's another key difference

Well they didn’t have YouTube, did they?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 09:54

Username Protected wrote:

here's another key difference

Well they didn’t have YouTube, did they?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 13:44

Username Protected wrote:

Yeah but the Raptor is faster and has more seats than the Wright Flyer

FIFY

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 22:20

It's not very interesting, but here is a video of the Raptor Dead stick landing ad Valdosta.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/FR2xrhd1e6g[/youtube]

It's completely uneventful. The plane coast out of the frame after making an uneventful landing. A little while later a fire truck rolls out to the runway, but it's in no hurry. At around 7:00 you can see a golf cart towing the plane back to the hangar. Not much to see, but here it is. No damage to the plane.

Whatever you might want to say about Peter and test pilots, it looks like he handled this engine out with aplomb.

Jack

Username Protected · **Posted:** 06 Feb 2021, 22:23

Attachment:

05ECD317-F821-4AEE-9400-B5A04209B5BF.jpeg

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 16:46

That was a smidge of an oil leak...will be interesting to see where it originated from. :bugeye:

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 17:07

Cobalt Valkyrie was a much better design that failed... I think the Raptor will always be a one off.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 17:17

Username Protected wrote:

That was a smidge of an oil leak...will be interesting to see where it originated from. :bugeye:

For those that didn't watch, here's the image in the video that has been shared so far. Oil quickly appears on the cowl duct he added for the latest oil cooler. (The cooler in that duct is fed from an inline pump pulling oil from the redrive back into the sump, I believe.) After losing oil pressure, the prop goes to flat pitch, but he hasn't shared the video of actually losing the engine yet. It ended "to be continued" after he declared and was headed back to land.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 17:23

Peter's new video is up.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/rniyUi6p7NM[/youtube]

If you don't want to watch the whole 16-minute video, here is the takeaway.

He leaves the whole engine out incident as a cliff hanger. The video goes along like a normal Raptor video with all the temperatures and "have to sort that out" talk. Then the oil light flashes on and he points out a serious oil leak that you can see from the external cameras.

He then turns back towards the runway, declares an emergency, and starts talking through runway selection ect.. The video ends with him on a downwind for 17 with the engine still running. Then it says:

To Be Continued.

We know the engine did quit entirely. We know he made the runway and landed with no damage. We know he had an oil leak, but we don't know from where. We don't know if the engine was wrecked (probably), or whether he shut it down once he had the runway made (unlikely).

We will have to wait to find out what happened and why. Where is the project going to go from here? Can he find another Audi engine and keep going, our is this the final nut punch?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 17:34

Username Protected wrote:

The video goes along like a normal Raptor video with all the temperatures and "have to sort that out" talk.

Funny, here I am watching a video that I know is going to end with an engine failure, but I'm dozing off as he went on about the normal stuff: that tape broke again but I can tape it a different way, and the Garmin autopilot trim, and the redrive tensioner, and the static port...

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 19:17

Seems like it was also blowing oil from higher up as well, but who knows how the airflow actually goes thru the cowling:

Attachment:

Screen Shot 2021-02-07 at 5.16.10 PM.png

Username Protected · **Posted:** 07 Feb 2021, 19:24

A little oil goes a long way on a white cowling. The minor traces along with the lack of gloom and doom in Peter’s voice leads me to believe that the engine may be OK. So we’ll have more great videos to watch....

Best,
Tom