Cooling on pusher-prop designs

[Weaver]

Yeah, that's the thing isn't it? The ducting has to be efficient for a suction fan to work. I've schemed things like that before, but the problem is that the ducting takes up quite a bit of volume, and on a twin-boom pusher type, there isn't that much room in the fusealge pod, hence my idea to put the rad somewhere that was otherwise under-utlised and in the prop-wash, thereby needing no ducting at all.

I suppose that if you want the ducting to be as small as possible, you could put a circular radiator between the engine and the prop, in the manner of some WWI types like the SE.5a or Bristol Fighter, then have an FW 190 style fan pulling air through it. The intakes would be formed by the engine cowlings bulging outwards from the fuselage line, a bit like the Kyushu Shinden.

I still like the idea of putting the rad on the tailplane though. There was plenty of pumbing on a lot of water-cooled fighters anyway, and it doesn't actually make the system any more complicated: it just means some of the pipes are a 'bit' longer.

[Dizzyfugu]

IIRC, the Bugatti 100P had its radiator in the rear, behind the engines. The air intakes were integrated into the stabilizers, then the air was ducted forwards, and released backwards again at the wings' trailing edge. very exotic, no idea if THIS had actually worked... 

[PR19_Kit]

That's VERY ingenious. 

[Scotaidh]

IIRC, the Bugatti 100P had its radiator in the rear, behind the engines. The air intakes were integrated into the stabilizers, then the air was ducted forwards, and released backwards again at the wings' trailing edge. very exotic, no idea if THIS had actually worked... 

I believe there's a flying replica of it.

[Dizzyfugu]

There was, it crashed!

[PR19_Kit]

I believe there's a flying replica of it.

Somewhat sadly, there WAS a flying replica of the Bugatti 100P, but it crashed fatally on only its third flight.

[perttime]

There was, it crashed!

"""
Probable Cause

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed following an engine anomaly during the initial climb after takeoff, which resulted in the airplane exceeding its critical angle of attack and experiencing an aerodynamic stall. Contributing to the accident was an engine anomaly, the reason for which could not be identified during postaccident examination.
...
We know from the investigation by the Le Rêve Blue team, that the engine anomaly in question was clutch slippage, apparently a conclusion which the NTSB does not want to publish (Maybe lack of factual proof?).
"""
http://www.bugattiaircraft.com/news.htm