Today's Message Index:
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1. 06:41 AM - Lightning and Esqual two totally different designs (Brian Whittingham)
2. 08:07 AM - speed mods (Kayberg@AOL.COM)
3. 08:22 AM - Re: speed mods (Brian Whittingham)
4. 08:58 AM - Lightning/Esqual Pics (Brian Whittingham)
5. 09:09 AM - Lightning/ Esqual Pics II (Brian Whittingham)
6. 09:37 AM - Re: Lightning/ Esqual Pics II (Rick Bowen)
Message 1
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| Subject: | Lightning and Esqual two totally different designs |
--> Lightning-List message posted by: "Brian Whittingham" <dashvii@hotmail.com>
AJ,
I guess that you could say in some way that when the Esqual company sold
out the guys formed Arion Aircraft and designed an airplane that was a low
wing due to the fact that they had no more Esqual's to sale. They look a
little similar, but there is where the similarities end. The Lightning is
totally a newly designed aircraft. Let's take a look at the two aircraft
side by side:
VM-1 Esqual
Dimensions
Wingspan 2910
Wing Area 96.87 ft^2
Length 20
Height 64
Cockpit Width 43 (claimed, but really about 40 if I remember correctly)
Empty Weight 585lbs. (carbon composite version)
Max Weight 1232
Fuel Capacity 26.4 gallons
Price Approximately $39,000
Performance
Cruise at 75% 143-164mph
Vne 198mph
Vs 38.5 mph (when max weight of 992lbs, European microlight category)
Roll Rate 45-45 2 seconds
Arion Lightning
Dimensions
Wingspan 272
Wing Area 91.0 ft^2
Length 20
Height 66
Cockpit Width 43
Empty Weight 800lbs. (I think 700lbs is more the production E.W.)
Max Weight 1425lbs
Fuel Capacity 23 gallons
Price Approximately $29,900 ($33,900 in 2007)
Performance
Cruise at 75% 175 mph
Vne 208 mph
Vs 45 mph (again I think the production Lightning was more like 40mph)
Roll Rate 45-45 <1 second
So, in other words the planes are very different. That is not just in terms
of dimensions and performance though. The Lightning is a far more
responsive and capable airframe. The controls are entirely different. The
Esqual has a light control feel whereas the Lightning has a really good
feel, not heavy on the controls, but you actually have some feel and
feedback. In addition the rates of climb are about 1000' per minute in an
Esqual and about 1200+ fpm in the Lightning.
Having flown a good amount of hours in both airplanes I can tell you that
the Esqual is a fun airplane to fly. The Lightning has better curves,
better peformance, and a way better control method than the Esqual does.
I'm going to try to find some comparison pics head on, side view, that sort
of thing and attach to a future email for comparison.
Thanks for your interest, Brian Whittingham
Message 2
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I wanted to expand a bit on possible speed mods for a Lightning.
Kent Paser did achieve a 64 mph increase in top speed over a stock Mustang
II. However, as I look over the list of mods, I only see a couple that
might apply to the Lightning.
His engine improvements, airflow through engine improvements, moving radio
antennas, changing fuselage shape, fairing the airframe and landing gear
accounted for 58 mph, none of which would apply!! The cowlings, airframe
fairings, gear, etc are already part of the Lightning. The engine is already
optimized.
The remaining 6 mph came from 18 other small projects. Of those, only flap
gap seals, taping joints, prop to spinner seals, pitot fairings and flap
attach fairings, would reasonably apply. I would expect the speed gain from
those to be less than 4 mph.....probably not worth it for the amount of work
involved.
I would not expect flap gap seals to make more than a couple miles an hour
difference, depending on how tight the flaps were fitted to begin with. The
huge issue is landing gear fairings. Without them a Lightning would cruise
135-145 at 2850, with them I would expect 160-175. Little else would make
much difference. IMHO.
Doug Koenigsberg
Message 3
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--> Lightning-List message posted by: "Brian Whittingham" <dashvii@hotmail.com>
Doug,
There's a huge need for flap gap seals on this plane. Piper STC'd kits
have claimed about 6-8 mph with flap gap seals, aileron gap seals, and hinge
fairings. I expect more from the Lighting. There's a 3 inch gap between
the trailing edge of the wing and the front of the flap. On the Piper it is
less than 1 inch. The ailerons there is about 1.5 inch gap I think.
I believe that there is always improvement that can be made to an airframe.
Maybe not 68mph worth, but certainly 10-15 could be found. I believe some
other ideas would be a leading edge extension for the wing and tail section
and be refaired into the fuselage. These have been done on racing Lancairs
to a good advantage. There's also the possiblity if you really wanted to
optimize the planform of trying to up the cross sectional area of the
fuselage the first few feet behind the wing. There's possibly a little
improvement in the nose gear fairing area. The cowling is good right now
for cooling, but there might be room for improvement there.
Lots of little things that could optimize the plane for speed on any given
design, but I won't know for sure on what the gap seals and hinge fairings
will do for speed until I actually test it. I'm hopeful for a few miles per
hour.
Brian W.
Message 4
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| Subject: | Lightning/Esqual Pics |
Here are some comparison pictures. As I've already established the planes
look similar and were designed for basically the same role, to be a fun
airplane, but there are some differences in looks too.
Picture 1 - This is the Esqual wing planform. I drew a dashed blue line to
show the basic shape of the wing as it does have a little wingtip flare at
the end. This is a different airfoil than the Lightning. In a power off
dive the Esqual wing will top out at about 195mph (terminal velocity) but
the Lightning wing keeps going to ???Mph.
Picture 2 - This is the Hybrid Esqual actually, but the prototype Lightning
wing was tested on this airframe, so it is identical in shape at least to
the Lightning wing on the production planes. As you can see the airfoil is
slightly thicker, It almost looks symmetrical but isn't, and it has this
interesting dual trailing edge cusp which makes a teardrop shape. The idea
is that it will work like the pressure recovery wheelpants and create a
lower pressure towards the back of the airfoil making it stay laminar for
longer.
Picture 3 - This is an Esqual from the front quarter. Notice that the
canopy just swings up and has nothing holding it up but forward weight. The
inlets are square on the cowling and the scoop pretrudes out the bottom of
the cowling for the oil cooler.
Picture 4 - The cowling inlets are round, the oil cooler is fed by a NACA
duct. (there's a new NACA duct that has been tested and shown even better
cooling, I think 10 degrees cooler in oil temps!) This canopy is held up by
gas struts to keep it in place. There are side rear windows. It may be
hard to tell in most of these pics but the shape of the canopy is different
and the optics are much clearer in the Lightning. The Esqual always had
distortion in the canopy. The canopy also seems to be thicker in the
Lightning.
Picture 5 - This is me running up an Esqual last winter. Good profile
comparison
Picture 6 - The Lightning has a longer nose to it. These planes always felt
sportier with how it sits with the long nose and all. Notice the afterbody
behind the wing section stays the same longer ont he Lightning before
beginning to taper. This means more speed than the Esqual due to the more
favorable cross sectional area. Again there's a rear window and you can
actually see behind you. That's something the Esqual really lacked. The
tail is slightly taller in the Lightning giving better rudder authority.
This plane feels a lot better in a strong crosswind landing than the Esqual.
Pic 7 - Another profile view of the Esqual.
Pic 8 - The Lightning has weighted and balanced control surfaces which the
Esqual lacked. This allows for higher speeds without encountering flutter
and also a good feel to the controls in flight. That leading edge on the
vertical stabilizer acts like a spade and gives more of a feel to the rudder
than the Esqual had.
Have one more set of pics coming
Message 5
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| Subject: | Lightning/ Esqual Pics II |
More pics:
Picture 1 - The Esqual cowling when viewed from the front has a scoop for
the oil cooler. The air inlets are squared off and just generally a dragier
cowling. If you don't believe that statement ask Buzz who put a modified
Lightning cowling on his Esqual and saw some good speed gains.
Picture 2 - The Lightning cowl is a much more pleasing and flowing contoured
cowl. On the production cowlings the NACA duct has been resituated into a
duct on either side of the cowling and not in the front bottom like this.
Still you can get an idea.
Picture 3 - The Esqual wheelpants are simply covered to keep the wheels out
of the airstream.
Picture 4 - The Lightning wheelpants aren't a new idea, but the pressure
recovery wheelpants have been proven to give a better increase in speed than
the Esqual wheelpants. The original idea has been wind tunnel tested to
find a more optimum shape and reduce drag.
Pic 5 - Esqual wheelpants from another angle.
Picture 6. Lightning wheelpants from the same angle. I personally think
the looks of the Lightning wheelpants are better and the speed gains are
better too.
Hope this helps to show some of the visual differences between the two
aircraft. If you've flown the two planes then there really is no comparison
in the control of the two aircraft. The Lightning has a far better feel and
the airframe certainly is optimized more than the Esqual. Brian W.
Message 6
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| Subject: | Lightning/ Esqual Pics II |
--> Lightning-List message posted by: "Rick Bowen" <rollnloop@hotmail.com>
Brian,
Nice summary and comparison pics!
Only thing I can add is the Lightning is absolutely one of the most
beautiful planes out there!
Rick
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