Overview of Aeronautical Program

By utilizing a recent aerodynamic breakthrough, we have the potential to produce propeller airplanes with the capability of flying as fast, or faster, than most business jets. Through the use of efficient turbo-charged piston engines, we will burn 1/3 the fuel of a jet, which will extend the fuel supply as well as provide lower operating costs. We will be able to produce planes that will outperform the competition, while providing a considerable cost savings in both acquisition and operation.

This project has employed the same designers, and the same methods, used in creating multi-million dollar airliners. Our design has been selected by the Swedish government to calibrate their new wind tunnel in all speed ranges, including speeds in excess of Mach 1. We will be receiving extensive wind tunnel test data for use in the program, well beyond what is normally afforded for a similar commercial venture.

Our plans include providing a record-breaking race plane, followed by limited production of race planes for other race teams. We will also enter the kit-plane market with two designs. A new company would expand, at a future date, into the booming certificated business plane market.

Overview of Dart Race Plane

Mission

The Dart is an Unlimited Category race aircraft designed to capture the world propeller driven speed and time-to-climb records. The aircraft will be equipped with a back seat for passenger demonstrations and press tours. This series of aircraft will be sold for unlimited class racing at a fraction of the cost of existing modified war birds.

Current Race planes, such as Dago Red and Strega, have a top speed of about 510 mph, have posted race speeds of over 480 mph and are structurally limited to less than 8 G's. A comparison of these two planes with the Dart shows that the Dart is lighter, has a higher power to weight ratio, a higher mach limit, and a stronger structure. Even without its advanced aerodynamic and propulsion technology, the Dart is capable of higher lap speeds and top speeds than either of its competitors.

Moreover, current unlimited class planes are suffering from a multitude of issues such as a lack of spare or replacement parts, lack of reliability due to age and high parts count, extremely high labor and time requirements for maintenance and race preparation, and low automation of engine systems. This is causing excessive failure rates to the aircraft in service. The 1999 race winner, Dago Red, was completely dismantled firewall forward between qualifying heats and race start by the crew merely to check for an oil leak.

By contrast, the Dart is being designed with modern, simple systems and a high degree of maintenance access. This will eliminate the thousands of small parts common to the warbirds and allow rapid turnaround of any maintenance task including an engine change. A survey of the current race teams showed that most of the engine failures were system problems related to the plethora of small, inaccessible parts coming loose at random intervals.

Airframe

Design for the Dart was accomplished using modern transonic aerodynamics developed for commercial airliners and military transports. Many of our consulting designers work in the Boeing Long Beach facility, on advanced fighter design as well as other highly technical work.

As a result of Dr. Anthony Jameson’s engineering optimization program, our engineers were able to review an unprecedented variety of wing design, culminating in the Shark 57 wing. This is a highly developed wing design, and changes shape throughout its span to produce a large overall reduction of mach induced drag, as well as to limit turbulent flow through the aft propeller section. The fuselage and wing were designed to allow the advantage of laminar flow to a high degree, though this was not depended upon for the plane specification given.

The pusher propeller utilizes technology gained from the Lear Fan project. This project proved that pusher aircraft could maintain high propeller efficiencies through dedicated design. Modern transonic propellers will be utilized, while a propeller location aft of the main cg will add stability in the power-on condition. Current tractor propeller designs are finding uncontrolled handling at their upper speed envelope due in major part to the de-stabilizing effect of a propeller forward of cg. To safely fly the Dart in the company of planes weighing in excess of 9,000 pounds, our goal of twice the stability of a Mustang dictated a pusher propeller design.

Engine

Powering the sleek Dart is a modern technology 1002 ci turbocharged V12. The engine utilizes redundant dual electronic ignition, fuel injection, remote electric water pumps, and features four valves per cylinder and double overhead cams. This engine will be rated at 1800 HP in the Dart with growth potential to 2200 HP. After application specific development is complete, a new engine will cost ~$120k; the WWII engines are $180k to 250k and are composed of old parts of unknown history. The Dart engine has demonstrated high reliability and 2 to 4 times the power-to-weight ratio of the WWII engines, enabling a smaller and lighter aircraft to be designed with winning performance.

The Dart will have the highest power-to-weight and power-to-wetted area ratios in it's class enabling it to set new performance standards in unlimited racing for years to come. We will be the only plane at the races with a pilot extraction system, setting new safety standards at the same time. The Dart will be sold as a complete aircraft in the airshow exhibition/racing experimental category.

Aircraft Comparison Chart