Re: Alfa engined planes and a hats off to Mr.DiMatteo

["Rich Wagner" <drsavage@xxxxxxx>]

Terry wrote:

>The motor is an alfa built
>1000Rc-41-1.This is an inverted vee V12 motor with fuel injection(to
>facilitate inverted flight;by comparison,the Spit Mk5 had carbs, which
would
>starve for fuel in inverted or prolonged neg-G flight.)

Please understand that I don't mean to be a nit-pick.  However, airplanes
were mentioned, and as an Aero Engineer and pilot, I must allow my mouth
(okay, fingers) to run.  According to my references, the MK5 Spitfire went
into service with the Mark 60 Rolls Royce Merlin.  This engine was an
evolutionary development (1941) which included a two-stage, two-speed
supercharger.  (Previous marks had single-stage superchargers.)  My
references also indicate that the Merlin was always produced with a
single-point fuel injection system.  The injector was situated to fire
directly into the supercharger impeller.  It fired into the low pressure
impeller on the two-stage, Mark 60 and later engines.  Remember that
carburetors can and have been built to operate in any attitude.  The two
main stimuli for including injection in most aircraft engines are increased
performance and resistance to icing.  'Course, as Terry points out,
injection is impervious to gravity--so long as fuel can still be supplied
to the injection pump.


>The motor in the MC202
>was not Alfa designed, rather it's a license built Daimler Benz DB-605LA
>(German designed; it had Bosch mechanical fuel injection.)The LA
designation
>means that it has a lower compression that allowed usage of lower octane
fuels
>(the 97 octane C3 fuel, rather than the higher octane fuels used in other
>applications of this motor, like the Me109G/H and K series.Believe alfa
built
>the prop as well, it appears to be a Hamilton Standard type design.The
>restoration of this plane is 100%,I'd love to see under the cowling of
this
>airplane.

As with all aircraft restored by the museum, this aircraft received a 100%
cosmetic restoration.  None of the aircraft are purposely restored to
flying condition.  The systems on board the aircraft are restored, within
reason, to a state reflecting the way they would look in service.  The
artisans at Silver Hill make no effort to ensure that the various systems
of the aircraft are functional.


Rich
Manitou Springs, CO
'82 GTV6 Balocco

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