Greg Hennessy wrote:
Mike Marron wrote:

The "Starfighters" F-104 demo team based out of my hometown
(Clearwater, FL) and the jet-powered Waco bipe in the link above
that Keith posted are my two fave airplanes at Sun 'n Fun. Another
very cool photo is the *turboprop* ULTRALIGHT shown in the link
below:

http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/toc.php?6.92

Scroll down to the bottom to view the pic. Very cool!

Thats a *small* engine. Any ideas what it is ? The thoughts of a 3-400
horse turbine on something that small just boggles the mind.

It's a Rotax/Lucas gas turbine APU (used on early Harriers, I think)
that develops 80 hp at 55,000 rpms (my reciprocating Rotax 912
engine on my trike develops the exact same hp at 5800 rpms). The
little turbine only weighs about 70 lbs. but guzzles down the kerosene
at approx. 200 lbs. per hr.

Has an inflight adjustable prop (as opposed to a constant-speed
prop) and just like the big boys it also has beta range, meaning it
can reverse pitch.

If one can afford the engine and the fuel to feed it, I suppose it's a
great little engine for high density altitude ops and/or towing
gliders up to FL180 (any higher and you need to file IFR, of course).

But turbines aren't a very practical powerplant at all for most light
A/C that spend the majority of their time operating down low 'n slow
in the weeds.

Here's a bit more about the turboprop UL if you're interested. Scroll
down to the third article:

http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/Ozv6n101.htm