I have for some time been looking closely at the turbine engine originally developed and patented by Nikola Tesla at the beginning of this century.
If one was to power a racer with this engine with stored compressed air or most likely Nitrogen; what motive class would it be in My calculations based on the details available show that the available energy from a G sized BOC or AirLiquide cylinder of compressed gas should be sufficient for at least 2 or 3 full course runs on an engine that would be able to provide around 350 to 450 shaft horsepower
Not sure about teslas designs.. sometimes he seems like a genius
other times like a lunatic
I seriously doubt the shaft hp, but hey who am I to doubt?
compare it to an allison c20 that makes 318 shp at about 80k rev
I think a version was 420 hp for a short period for take-off
Anyway build yourself a streamliner in under 500kg class
i think the record is something like 226mph (dont quote me
on that)
yep those are the allison c20
there are heaps of people using them in things in the states
lots of boats and also a guy using a get53 i think in a boat
with 1350 shp
there was also a dude using a small (about 100hp)
turbine in a kart
check out www.turbokart.com
There was a C18 on ebay in june went for $9k had spares and 50 hrs airtime left ,
If anyone is interested there is a guy in SA wanting to get rid of a couple of Mamba turboprop engines with spares for $3500 , cheap 11-1500HP and output shaft running to 8k rpms
6' long with the exhaust housing on , 4 'in this pic, widest point at the front acc drive is 22" , this one has no gearbox and drives the front shaft at 27000rpm, not much info available and less parts.
funny you should mention that, cos there is already a
number of double mamba engines which are basically
that, 2 strapped together with a common gearbox
60 year old technology with almost 3000 hp yeeehaaa
I agree with what you say about Tesla, he was a showman, a genius, and is often the case with that combination, problematic.
He is a darling of the Interweb too, with many kooky loner dreamers bastardising his concepts into new dubious science contraptions which doesn't help the memory of what he did achieve.
I think the new TESLA eclectric sportscar is a deserving homage to his legacy though.
I once suggested the name for a US electric powered streamliner to be:
"Salt Lake Ion" which is an anagram of Nikola Tesla...
Double Mamba
Wasn't that the one that was on the the front of the fairy gannet
The propellor used to fall off when they launched it from the catapult and
the ship (HMAS Melbourne) used to run them over
G
