The Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company T800 is a turboshaft engine for rotary wing applications. It is produced by the LHTEC, a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Honeywell. The commercial and export version is the CTS800. The engine was primarily developed for the United States Army’s RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, but has found use in other applications.
LHTEC (Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Company) is a joint venture between Rolls-Royce and Honeywell founded in 1985. The company was originally a partnership between the Allison Engine Company and AlliedSignal Aerospace . In 1995 Rolls-Royce acquired Allison, and AlliedSignal merged with Honeywell in 1999, and adopted its name.
The partnership (Headquarters in Indianapolis, IN, USA) was formed to develop the T800 turboshaft engine for the United States Army’s RAH-66 Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter. Despite the cancellation of this 650+ aircraft project, the company has been able to sell the T800, and its civil CTS800 model, for other applications, namely the AgustaWestland Super Lynx and Future Lynx.
The LGT Stratos is a high performance ultralight developed and constructed by Charles Ligeti. It is a single seat with a swept-back canard joined to the high main wing at the wing tips by split flap rudders. Construction is of composite materials and controls are conventional 3-axis.
A lightplane prototype, although its future remains in doubt following the death of its designer.
The Stratos is an Australian type that first flew in April 1985. The aeroplane was designed to confirm Mr Ligeti’s conviction of the aerodynamic and structural advantages inherent in such a hybrid type, which combines the efficiency of the canard configuration, the combined large wing area and small overall span of the tandem-wing configuration, and the strength of the braced biplane configuration. The compact dimensions of the Stratos make it possible for the fully assembled machine to be towed on a trailer. The core of the Stratos is the short but streamlined fuselage, which is an all-composite structure built up of Kevlar and glassfibre skins over shaped rigid foam. The fuselage supports the bicycle main units of the fixed landing gear, which are supplemented by outrigger stabilizers under the tips of the canard foreplanes, as well as the powerplant and flying surfaces. The powerplant comprises a small piston engine driving a pusher propeller enclosed, for improved efficiency, in a circular duct of 25.5-in (0.65-m) internal diameter. The flying surfaces are of the same basic construction as the fuselage, with carbonfibre spars, and comprise straight rear-mounted wings ending in vertical surfaces that stretch down to form the wings’ physical and aerodynamic link with the canard foreplanes, which run back from the nose just forward of the cockpit.
Engine: Konig 430 3-cyl. Prop: 3-6 blade ducted fan 61 cm dia. Wing span: 5.31 m. Length: 2.42 m. Fuel capacity: 22 ltr. Econ cruise speed: 90 kts. Stall: 28 kts. Seats: 1.
Engine: Konig SD 570 four-cylinder air-cooled radial piston, 28-hp (21 -kW) Seats: 1 Maximum speed 124 mph (200 km/h) Initial climb rate 670 ft (205 m) per minute Service ceiling 14,760 ft (4500 m) Range 447 miles (720 km) Empty weight: 172 lb (78 kg) Maximum take-off weight: 414 lb (188 kg) Wingspan 17 ft 7 in (5.36 m) Length 8 ft 2 in (2.49 m) Height 3 ft 3 in (0.99 m) Wing area 81 sq.ft (7.53 sq.m) including canard foreplanes.
Air Cam probably never would have been built period had the Na¬tional Geographic Society not come call-ing, asking Lockwood about a camera-ship for an upcoming special on the Con¬go’s Ndoki Rain Forest. They weren’t pi¬lots, but they knew what they wanted: a two place airplane that could be outfitted with a relatively heavy motion picture camera, that could take off from an im¬provised one way strip carved out of the river bank, then fly some 70 miles into the jungle, loitering for hours over the canopy while the cinematographer cap¬tured never before seen footage of a for¬merly impenetrable land.
Within six months Lockwood had constructed the first Air Cam, an airplane that, while substantially different from the current model, had all the key elements in place. Chief among them were twin pusher engines mounted so close to each other that the loss of either one has minimal impact on the control-lability of the airplane. On the first air¬ plane, the engines were 65 horsepower two stroke Rotax 582s.
The construction of that first airplane was based on what Lockwood knew best, ultralight technology. In general, this consists of ladder construction wings with spars, battens and ribs made of aluminum tubing and covered with sailcloth. The fuselage was built out of steel (chromoly) tubing covered with aluminum, and the tail, of built up alu¬minum tubing. With wings that de¬tached easily for transport, the Air Cam was a design that would hopefully meet the challenges of life in the rain forest. In the fall of 1994 Lockwood had the Air Cam shipped to Africa for the mis¬sion. Flying in the remotest sections of Congo.
Lockwood started on an airframe redesign, making the now longer fuselage out of riveted built up aluminum con¬struction, just like Cessna does it. He made the vertical tail larger for even bet¬ter single engine performance (and to account for the possible addition of floats later on). He beefed up the cruci¬form tail (that placement, he says, optimizes the airplane’s slow speed han¬dling while maximizing its strength), and he stretched the wings, from 32 feet to 36 feet in span to carry both the addi¬tional weight of the new design and the larger, aluminum fuel tanks (29 gallons total). The redesign added only a bit of weight while maintaining or improving the airplane’s performance across the board.
It had taken Lockwood a couple of years and dozens of design changes to get to the point where he was happy, but by 1997 the tooling was complete, the computerized drawings were done, the suppliers were lined up and Lockwood pronounced that the airplane was ready.
The quick build kit Leza AirCam aeroplane comes with a twelve-volume manual. Each volume covers a particular section of the aeroplane complete with exploded drawings designed on AutoCAD. The fuselage construction is an all-metal riveted monocoque, made up of preformed bulk¬heads, stringers and skins, with pre-located holes. The nose cone is a finished fibreglass moulding. and the windscreen is pre-cut Lexan. The wing centre section is all-metal. All other flying surfaces use pre-cut and drilled aircraft grade 6061 T-6 aluminium tubing and preformed aluminium ribs, covered by pre-sewn fabric envelopes. The constant chord swept tip wings are supported on a mixture of round section and faired centre section struts, with the flight loads taken to the bottom of the fuselage by long diagonal struts with centre jury struts. All controls are cable operated, in the case of the ailerons to bell cranks and then push rods. Large plain flaps are operated by a single electric screw jack. The elevator trim tab on the port side is also electrically operated. The big rudder has no trim tab. It is possible to remove the outer wings for transportation, but it is not a five minute job. The undercarriage has tapered spring steel legs, fitted with hydraulic disc braked wheels carrying 600A tyres. At the back, the tail wheel is a steerable and castoring Maule item. Power is usually supplied by two Rotax 582 water-cooled, two-cylinder, two strokes, or optionally, two Rotax 912S four stroke flat fours with water-cooled heads driving three-blade Warp Drive ground adjustable props. The 912 engines are un-cowled with the flush mounted radiators fed by NACA ducts on the underside of the wings. Each engine has a 14 US gallon tank in the wing with an auxiliary booster pump, electric primer, electric starter and an alternator. The fore and aft two seat cockpit has dual controls, the rear seat can be fitted with a single row of instruments. Behind the rear seat is a large open topped baggage bay, 24.75-in wide by 42-in long with tie down points. As this and the rear seat are close to the datum, loading has only small effect on C of G. Both fibreglass moulded seats can be ground adjusted fore and aft by re¬moving two pip pins. They are covered by padded fitted covers and were surprisingly comfortable. The front cockpit is roomy enough for large people and well laid out. Small pilots need a booster cushion to comfortably reach the pedals. The pedals rock to operate the brakes. There is no parking facility. The throttles are mounted on the left cockpit rim, along with a bank of weatherproof switches for ignitions, fuel pumps and primers. On the right side are all the switches for nay and landing lights. The instrument panel contains the flap and trim switches and the flap position indicator. There is room for basic flight instruments, a VHF com and a transponder. The centre console has all the circuit breakers, oil pressure, temperature and CHT gauges. As the cockpit rim is below your elbows, the visibility is truly magnificent in all directions, except for immediately underneath, and back and up where the wing intrudes.
The first four customer built Air Cams were at Sun ‘n Fun in April of 1999. While the Air Cam is available with the two stroke 582s, almost every customer has asked for the 100 horse Rotax 912S engines.
All Aero 