Laser Engines development.

[Bruce Collinson]

Can’t wait to read all about it!

BTC

[Bob Cotsford]

Jon, do you know when the mag article is scheduled for publication?

[Jon H]

Posted by Bob Cotsford on 06/08/2020 13:19:25:

Jon, do you know when the mag article is scheduled for publication?

I dont, but even if i did i probably couldnt say

[Tony Richardson]

Darn the suspense is killing me..

Edited By Tony Richardson on 30/08/2020 23:39:13

[Ron Gray]

Yes, Jon has been awfully quite over the last few weeks, not like him at all!

[Jon H]

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. Work in progress and all that.

[William Macleod]

Hi Jon,

Interested in the 180 petrol...any updates? Bill

[Glenn Stevenson]

Just wondered if there is an extension for the 180 exhaust, its threaded inside and was thinking of maybe a length of threaded 14mm tube perhaps?

Glenn

[Nigel Dell]

Posted by Glenn Stevenson on 03/10/2020 12:26:34:

Just wondered if there is an extension for the 180 exhaust, its threaded inside and was thinking of maybe a length of threaded 14mm tube perhaps?

Glenn

I am sure there is Glenn, I bought one with my 180 as an accessory when I got it.

[Ron Gray]

@Glenn - see Laser

[bert baker]

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 01/09/2020 12:54:42:

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. Work in progress and all that.

Hope your working on the alternative fuel development

[Chris Walby]

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 01/09/2020 12:54:42:

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. Work in progress and all that.

Hope your working on the alternative fuel development

Bert - Not quite sure what you mean, the lower oil content glow fuel is commercially available and works a treat

PS - Jon is on "holiday" for a couple of weeks or working on the new submersible Laser engine for the UK market.

[Chris Walby]

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 01/09/2020 12:54:42:

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. Work in progress and all that.

Hope your working on the alternative fuel development

Bert - Not quite sure what you mean, the lower oil content glow fuel is commercially available and works a treat

PS - Jon is on "holiday" for a couple of weeks or working on the new submersible Laser engine for the UK market.

[Ted Khinsoe]

Posted by Chris Walby on 03/10/2020 20:10:46:

Posted by Jon - Laser Engines on 01/09/2020 12:54:42:

Sorry guys, not much to report at the moment. Work in progress and all that.

Hope your working on the alternative fuel development

Bert - Not quite sure what you mean, the lower oil content glow fuel is commercially available and works a treat

PS - Jon is on "holiday" for a couple of weeks or working on the new submersible Laser engine for the UK market.

Is that code for “it’s raining” over there??

[Bob Howard]

Reduction drive sounds great to me.

I remember about 40 years ago seeing a member of the old West Drayton MAC flying a large Pat French Zlin 526 with an undersized engine and a reduction gearbox - very impressive!

[Jon H]

I suppose i should do a bit of an update here really.

So, i have been off work for about a month but am now back at the coal face. Needless to say things have fallen behind a bit so this week has been dedicated to finishing as much as i can. Most singles will be back in stock next week with more on the way.

On the development side the gearbox idea is going to be investigated and i have already done a base design. Still plenty to work out but we do plan to investigate it internally. If its not rubbish i will let you know! Beyond that, 2 new prototype engines have been built and tested. Performance was inline with what i was expecting and in fact exceeded expectation in some areas. Problems were found with the v1 component spec, which was expected, so a v2 design was pushed through and tested successfully.

That was going to be the end of it and i was expecting to ship v2 prototype spec engines for test, but it was decided it looked a bit too frankenstein even for a prototype so we pushed forward to finish the job and beautified them to production spec. This work is nearly done and only 2 parts need to be finished with one currently on the machine and the other (the engine mount) designed and ready to go.

I should have engines ready for test in only a few weeks with luck. I know the time of year is not ideal for testing but such is life. I have emailed most of the people who already expressed interest, if anyone else is keen let me know. Remember that i dont care what you fit it to as long as it will fly and fly regularly. The engines are not ready for your scale masterpieces just yet so nail it on to any old thing and just thrash the pants off it. My test model is already pretty ugly, paper plate awards on offer if yours is worse!

[Tony Richardson]

Please don't forget your overseas volunteers Jon, we get very little snow here on the west coast if any, pretty sure it would fit the Citabria Pro and get a good workout..

Tony....

[jeff2wings]

Humm,interesting 🤔 a gearbox you say.? Funny thing is I have been looking at doing this for fitting to a 4 stroke,ether a laser or Enya as it has several advantages such as lowering the height of the cylinder head and an increase in torque too swing a nice big prop ideal for WW 1 planes (the reason I'm looking at it).There have been some geared engines before such as the Damo 18 cc flat twin 4stroke,Wain v twin 2 stroke ,RCV's and the OS 6I FSR GS AI/2 and also the Webra 61 RCG that I just received.......

I will be using this to get some experience of operating this kind of engine and to delve inside to get some ideas

[John Stainforth]

Jon,

You whetted my appetite there, for a second or two, with all your talk of V1 and V2 prototypes. I was momentarily confused, not with the Nazi weapons of war, but with other V's in your stable... (I hope)!.

[Eric Robson]

Posted by John Stainforth on 31/10/2020 21:59:02:

Jon,

You whetted my appetite there, for a second or two, with all your talk of V1 and V2 prototypes. I was momentarily confused, not with the Nazi weapons of war, but with other V's in your stable... (I hope)!.

They should go like a bomb

[cymaz]

Posted by Eric Robson on 31/10/2020 22:44:16:

Posted by John Stainforth on 31/10/2020 21:59:02:

Jon,

You whetted my appetite there, for a second or two, with all your talk of V1 and V2 prototypes. I was momentarily confused, not with the Nazi weapons of war, but with other V's in your stable... (I hope)!.

They should go like a bomb

Let’s hope they don’t sound rough, go quiet then crash, like the Doodle Bug

[Eric Robson]

Posted by cymaz on 31/10/2020 22:56:05:

Posted by Eric Robson on 31/10/2020 22:44:16:

Posted by John Stainforth on 31/10/2020 21:59:02:

Jon,

You whetted my appetite there, for a second or two, with all your talk of V1 and V2 prototypes. I was momentarily confused, not with the Nazi weapons of war, but with other V's in your stable... (I hope)!.

They should go like a bomb

Let’s hope they don’t sound rough, go quiet then crash, like the Doodle Bug

From my experience with Laser engines there is little chance of that happening. Though recently a fellow club member had that happen with a Mick Reeves Spitfire just after take off. I must add not the fault of the engine.

[Engine Doctor]

Posted by jeff2wings on 31/10/2020 21:12:24:

I will be using this to get some experience of operating this kind of engine and to delve inside to get some ideas

If you use this type of set up then the engine has to run in a clockwise direction .Webra etc made reverse rotation cranks for this purpose . Good luck and let us know of any developments

[Jon H]

im sure you will all be happy to hear we are not working on any terror weapon

On the gearing side my dad has one of those webra 61's. Interesting beast but he has never actually flown it due to its rather pathetic exhaust making it about 90db.

My current plan is to gear the engines with 3 gears in a stack to mean no reverse timing is needed.

There are other advantages to this design too as it simplifies some aspects of the design from my point of view and, most importantly, means that in principal i could sell just the gearbox as a bolt on replacement for the front end of any engine out there in the wild. 4 bolts and the old bit comes off, 4 bolts and the new bit is back on. This could be handy as not all models have the ground clearance for a big prop and having the option to switch front ends could be useful.

Truthfully though i expect most engines to remain in one type or another. Its only likely to be WWI and WWII scale models that would need the bigger props anyway. Tiger moths etc will likely be fine with a normal configuration.

[Jon H]

I know some of you already know, but i can confirm that our new engine is an inline twin.

Currently two sizes (160 and 200) are on the table but it might not be the end of the road.

The photo is of the first production spec 200 and while it is currently missing its engine mount it is more or less the final version.

Hopefully i can get some more of these (and everything else) built in the next few weeks so we all have something to do over lockdown. Given the lockdown, our testing plans are sort of out the window a bit but we will continue as if there is no lockdown and accept that the flying part might have to wait.

I am really excited about this engine and am very pleased with its performance.

The only consideration to make is that due to its configuration you do need to build your model round it. ARTF's will need modification, cooling needs to be thought out (we can explain what needs to be done) and so on. None of it is difficult, but its going to appeal more to the modeller than the assembler if that makes sense.

Anyway, here is is..