Powerplant Options

Powerplant Selections
The list of powerplants available will correspond to the current aircraft class/type selected; ie. F8F types (Rare Bear) will select from a list of radial engine powerplants. There are two types of engines; air-cooled radials and liquid-cooled inline V12. Air-Cooled Radial Engines Wright R-3350 Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Liquid-Cooled V12 Engines Rolls-Royce Merlin V-1650-7 Rolls-Royce Merlin V-1650-9 Rolls-Royce Griffon 57 Allison V-1710-111/113 Allison V-1710-G6 Daimler-Benz 605A

Below are charts based upon reference data to illustrate maximum power available from the liquid-cooled engines at sea level and under standard day conditions. The scale is horsepower as a function of Manifold Pressure in inches of mercury; for reference, standard day atmospheric pressure at sea level is 29.92hg (14.69 Lb/In2). Based on this data it would appear that the best engine would be the DB605A. With real-world data this trend holds up to ~10,000 ft. where the Rolls-Royce powerplants begin to achieve parity. To improve gameplay these performance curves will be slightly adjusted to achieve this parity at altitudes lower than the 20,000-30,000ft. at which this normally occurs. Note that these charts are based upon standard day conditions and temperature deviations will have a significant impact upon not only the magnitude of the curve but also the shape. The purpose of these graphs is to illustrate how small changes to engine setup and weather conditions can have an effect upon powerplant performance.

Horsepower @ sea level

4000 3500 3000 2500 HP 2000 1500 1000 500 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 HG (x10) V-1650-7 (high blower) V-1650-9 (high blower) Griffon 57 (high blower) V-1710-111/113 V-1710-G6 (high blower) DB 605A

5,000 ft. Performance

Horsepower @ 5,000 ft.

3000 2500 2000 HP 1500 1000 500 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 HG (x10) V-1650-7 (high blower) V-1650-9 (high blower) Griffon 57 V-1710-111/113 V-1710-G6 (low blower) DB 605A

10,000 ft. Performance

Horsepower @ 10,000 ft.

2500

2000 V-1650-7 (low blower) 1500 HP V-1650-9 (high blower) Griffon 57 (high blower) 1000 V-1710-111/113 V-1710-G6 (high blower) DB 605A 500

0 0 10 20 30 40 50 HG (x10) 60 70 80 90 10

Supercharger Selection
Supercharger configurations are usually specific to a given powerplant version or type but there have been cases in the air racing community where adaptations have been made to create new combinations with varying levels of success. This idea will be taken one more step forward so as to allow single-stage and dual-stage superchargers on all powerplant types. Tradeoffs between weight, efficiency, and gearing for each stage allows fine-tuning to adjust for a given course and current weather conditions. To illustrate advantages of a two-stage supercharger refer to the following graph displaying engine output of the Rolls-Royce V-1650-9:

V-1650-9
3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 HP 1,500 1,000 500 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 HG(x10) low blower; sea level high blower; sea level low blower; 5,000 ft. high blower; 5,000 ft. low blower; 10,000 ft. high blower; 10,000 ft.

Note that at sea level the output of the first stage is greater at a given manifold pressure than when running the second stage of the blower. This is due to the efficiency at a given atmospheric pressure which each stage is designed to be operated. While the second stage does make more absolute power it is only at very high manifold pressures which increases the possibility of engine failure and also increases cooling and fuel requirements. Thus by selecting and running the second stage a very slight increase in performance is offset by additional weight of a two-stage supercharger, additional spray bar and ADI fluids needed for cooling, and additional fuel. Individually each of these penalties may be insignificant but combined may add up to a few hundred pounds which translates into a reduction of several MPH in straight line speed and more drag through the corners.

Supercharger Gearing
The gear ratios for each stage are customizable (default values are available). The default values will represent known baseline settings for a given engine/supercharger combination but the range of selectable values will allow a very wide range of adjustment. The general effect which gearing changes have is to shift the engine RPM at which a given Manifold Pressure is achieved. These changes must be made in consideration of the parasitic power requirements of the supercharger at a given RPM and the atmospheric pressure. Superchargers are essentially compressors and thus require energy to compress air and raise its pressure.

Table 2. Standard Atmosphere Altitude Ft. Sea Level 5.000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 Pressure Lb/In2 14.69 12.22 10.10 8.29 6.75 5.45 4.36 3.46 Density Lb/Ft2 0.0766 0.0660 0.0565 0.0482 0.0352 0.0253 0.0180 0.0109 Temperature F 59.0 41.2 23.3 5.5 -12.6 -30.2 -48.0 -65.8

Note that for rough estimates inches of mercury (HG) is roughly equivalent to twice the atmospheric pressure. This is important since supercharger boost is frequently specified in Lb/In2 while Manifold Pressure is in inches of mercury(HG). As an example, assume that a given supercharger gearing provides 15 Lb/In2 of boost at a given RPM at Sea level (standard day) resulting in approximately 30 HG. At 10,000 ft and the same settings the boost would only be 10 Lb/In2 resulting in manifold pressure of 20 HG.

Nitrous Oxide Injection

Nitrous Oxide is an oxygen-rich gas which raises power levels by significantly improving the efficiency of combustion. At a given RPM power levels and Manifold pressure will increase. This can provide short duration bursts of speed for overtaking and getting on top of a slightly overgeared supercharger. Note that engine reliability is greatly reduced with the use of Nitrous Oxide as it raises Manifold Pressure and temperatures and can cause engine failures if used excessively. The Nitrous Oxide selection box enables Nitrous Oxide and incurrs a slight weight penalty for the installation of the system. Use of Nitrous Oxide also increases fuel consumption for the duration of its use so will require additional fuel. The weight penalty of the system will be something on the order of 100-150 lbs. with the exact weight to be determined after internal testing.

Propeller Options
Propeller Gearing
Propeller gearing allows selection of propeller RPM as a function of engine RPM. There are 4 gear reduction ratios available; 0.400, 0.420, 0.471, 0.479. For example, a gearing selection of 0.400 means that for every 10 revolutions of the engine the propeller rotates 4 times. At first this may seem like a trivial option until the realities of efficiency and drag are considered. As propeller tip speed approaches the speed of sound or the MACH number of 1.0 drag increases considerably.
Propeller Drag 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 Cd 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 MACH

Since thrust produced by the propeller is a function of the efficiency of the propeller you can see how the amount of power required by the engine would increase dramatically as the propeller tip speed approaches the speed of sound. To complicate matters more the speed of sound changes based upon altitude and temperature. The following table is based upon standard day. Altitude in Feet Sea Level 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35.000 Sonic Speed, MPH 760.909 747.954 734.318 720.682 706.363 692.045 678.409 663.409

Deviations from a standard day such as a hot, humid day would shift the Sonic Speed downward while a cold, dray day would increase the Sonic Speed. A given engine and propeller RPM/gearing which may work well at Sea Level may have excessive drag at higher elevations due the higher MACH number at which it is operating.

Propeller Diameter
An additional component which must be factored into the equation if the propeller diameter. The general rule of thumb is that a larger diameter propeller will be more efficient, all things being equal. However all things are not equal when you consider that a larger diameter propeller has a greater tip speed than a smaller diameter propeller as a given RPM. A larger diameter propeller will give greater thrust at lower RPM but the combination of engine RPM and propeller gearing may cause tip speeds to increase above a point of maximum efficiency. There are four propeller diameters form which to select; 9, 10, 11, and 12 ft. These are accessed with the arrows buttons.

Putting it all together

To demonstrate how all these settings work together let us propose a scenario. What would be a good setup to race a P51 Mustang at the Reno Air Races under standard day conditions? If we were to approach the option selections haphazardly we would ultimately find every mediocre combination possible and most likely destroy a few engines. There are basically two primary options and one secondary; primarily we have engine and propeller options and secondarily we have supercharger options. The propeller provides the thrust to propel the aircraft forward and the engine provides the energy to turn the propeller. In this scenario we are at approximately 5,000 ft. on a course with very long straights and big fast turns. Lets start with a Rolls-Royce V-1650-7 engine with the baseline two-speed supercharger. This is an engine which was designed to operate at low to medium altitudes and should work well at Renos altitude. The next step is to select propeller size diameter and gearing. Ultimately we want as large a propeller as possible for efficiency reasons but must work within the limits of the flight conditions. We also have a limited set of selections for gearing and propeller diameter that limit our choices. In the real world these limits actually exist for all but the richest teams and for even those teams which can afford custom gearboxes and propellers they are rarely used due to higher than average failure rates and the time required to obtain replacements when they do fail. The diameters we have available to us are 9, 10, 11, and 12 ft. and the gearing options are 0.400, 0.420, 0.471, 0.479. The gear ratio is a reduction gear; 0.400 will turn the propeller 4 times for every 10 revolutions of the engine. Based upon the propeller drag curve example from above we want to limit maximum tip speed to 0.9 MACH number so from this we can derive the maximum propeller RPM for each diameter for our standard day conditions at the Reno course. Table A-2. Limiting Propeller Rpm ( 0.9 Mach No.) Altitude in Ft Prop Dia - Ft S/L 5,000 12 11 10 9 1,098 1,200 1,315 1,440 1,060 1,158 1,265 1,395

10,000 1,010 1,110 1,215 1,345

15,000 960 1,050 1,160 1,285

20,000 910 995 1,105 1,225

25,000 938 1,040 1,161

30,000

980 1,098

(This table and others will be included with the online documention) Since we want to use the largest propeller possible we will try the 12 ft diameter propeller. Given this, what is the maximum engine RPM for each of the reduction gear ratios which will not exceed 0.9 MACH number. Table A-3. Limiting Engine Rpm as a Function of Propeller Reduction Gear Ratio Altitude in Ft S/L Prop - Rpm Prop Gear Ratio 1,098 Engine Speed in Rpm 2,292 2,331 2,614 2,745

5,000 1,060

10,000 1,010

15,000 960

20,000 910

0.479 0.471 0.420 0.400

2,213 2,251 2,524 2,650

2,109 2,144 2,405 2,525

2,004 2,038 2,286 2,400

1,900 1,932 2,167 2,275

From this we can see than the maximum engine RPM would be in the range of 2200 to 2650 with the gear reduction ratios available to us. This RPM is outside the range of efficient operation for our Rolls-Royce powerplant so from here we can go two ways; either select an engine which does operate efficiently at this RPM or select a smaller diameter propeller. Looking at the charts for other propeller diameters we find that a 9 ft. propeller with the 0.400 gearing will put us close as close to that point (max RPM 3488) as we are going to get for our V-1650-7 when running in high blower under these conditions. Max power output for this engine occurs at 3600 RPM so we are still not quite at an optimum configuration. At this point we may want to either address supercharger options and adjust gearing so that maximum output is achieved a few hundred RPM lower or select an entirely different powerplant which achieves maximum power at a lower RPM and go back to a larger propeller. By raising the gearing of the supercharger we increase the power output and manifold pressure at a given engine RPM by moving the power curve to the left. This is not without a downside as the parasitic drag from the higher geared supercharger increases and therefore output at lower RPM may actually be reduced. At best this can be used to shift the power curve a few hundred RPM without significant penalties. As you can see there may be several optimum settings for a given set of course and weather conditions. Default setting are supplied to provide a baseline from which to experiment from and Test Fly flights are available for testing out a particular combination quickly from the Powerplant and Propeller Options pages.