Mike101 wrote:A former neighbour of mine imported Corvettes, which were like this, Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks are like this, Harleys are like this and I'm told that even Cessna light aircraft are like this.
I can confirm this about all american built light aircraft. The engines are still based on the VW 4,6 or 8 cylinder boxer design....using push rods. Nothing has changed really since the 1950's. The addition of turbos got more power but this only works for larger weight machines such as 6 seaters.
If you walk aroudn any airfield and loko at 95% of the kit fyling you will see that it is US made and of very very old technology. There are 1 or 2 exceptions but not many.
However if you look at modern european aircraft you will see brand new designed engines that use half the fuel of the old type, are so much more reliable and deliver many more times the power for their weight.
Let me give you and example.
A Cessena 152 built in say 1980 will hvae a 100HP lycoming 5ltr engine in it. This will use up to 30ltrs and hour of avgas...very expensive.
A modern AT4 built in the past 5 years will have a rotax 912 100hp engine in it. This will use 15lts of petrol an hour.
So the point here is that in the US they have a proven record of sticking to what works rather than changing with modern technology. Also the US market seems not to desire such new technical advances like we in europe do.
Mike
mike, I don't get what you saying, so I don't
do you know, that the robinson R22 and R44 are probably the most used helicopters in England and the rest of Europe, their built in America and use a Lycoming engine, almost the very same Lycoming engine that was used in 1950s bell 47 helicopter that was used and proven in the Korean war,
its also used in the most proven light aircrafts in the world today, like the Cessna 172, 182, you see them flying out of most airports in the world and in every airport in Europe, and they are also one of the best know training aircraft in the world
also the R22 and the schweizer 300 helicopters are among the best training helicopters in the world, so they are, and the swhweizer 300 uses the old reliable Lycoming engine also.
if it works, why change anything,
I tell you this, I would rather fly over mountains in an old Cessna 152 with its tested and proven lycoming engine, than with some aircraft thats an unproven modern technical advanced piece of sh*t, so I would.
edit
also, all the aircraft mentioned above are made in America, and are among the most successful aircraft in the world
