Warbird Information Exchange

Is there the possibility of some people converting their airplanes to a different propulsion system? Sort of like how some warbirds have "non-orginal" powerplants in order to have a more reliable engine or an engine with more readily available parts.

Do you think there would be people out there converting their P-51's to Hydrogen, or Hybrid, or 100% Electric? Seeing as how cars are starting to do that already, maybe planes will follow.

We still have coal, and a few museums and private individuals operate antique coal/steam locomotives for enthusiasts. So I can see warbirds operated the same way if there is a supply of 100LL around and regulation or insurance does not ground them.

If 100LL becomes unavailable, it's probably much less expensive to convert the existing powerplants to alcohol/ethanol/butanol than to develop an entirely new engine. You could run an engine on hydrogen, or you can introduce hydrogen into the mixture for a better burn and more fuel economy, but it will add complexity. Those who have toyed with the idea of new production engines should probably take alternate fuels into consideration, too. Just my opinion, though.

Let me get this out of the wqay first,... Muddy, I didn't take a shot at Bill or anybody else. I would expect that on a lot of things you and Bill see things a lot closer to the way ALGore does than some of the rest of us. Someone else brought up global warming and suggested that Bill give him a ride, probably to show Al that warbirds aren't bad, This goes back to another thread where Bill suggested that giving the occasional ride can go a long way to disarming anti airport miscreants. The shot was directed at AlGore, not because of his political leanings but because he's gotten so, um, LARGE. Bill has a strict weight limit for the back seat of the Spitfire and Al don't cut it ! Bill's right, Tipper may make it, which brings us back to the original ulterior motive aviation statement. " Wanna see my airplane, little girl" ? unfortunately Tipper would probably be more impressed with the shiny new G-5 parked next to the Spit at Aspen.

So that Hellcat doesn't get upset with me for answering, as to Biofuels issue for jets; certification is being done as we speak. The USAF recently ran some tests on a Biojet fuel using a B-52. The first flights involved flying a B-52 with only a couple of engines running on the biojet. Subsequent flights were flown with ALL engines running on the stuff. Apparently it worked just fine and the USAF is having a bunch of the stuff brewed up for further acceptance testing. The airlines and the FAA are watching closely.

As far as oils are concerned, 120 wt or 60wt ( if you're using the new scale ) is getting harder to find. Phillips is making the multigrade but I don't know how widely available it is, I've never seen it in drums, only plastic jugs.