VSKYLABS Offers Details on Rutan Model 158 Project

The VSKYLABS Rutan Model-158 Project for X-Plane by LaminarResearch (coming soon!). Since the VSKYLABS Rutan Model-158 is poweredby two PT-6A engines, a few structural modifications had to beimplemented into the original design. In the attached screen shots,you can identify the new PT-6 intake design, which was modeled intrue-scale into the original structure.

Landing gear bays in the original Model-158 are positioned in away that allows a full PT-6 intake design to fit in, along with aplausible Ice-vanes systems which separates heavier ice particles outof the engine nacelle. This system is fully modeled in the VSKYLABSRutan Model-158! Of course, both left and right engines will includethe PT-6 intake system.

Another fascinating insight from the thorough test flying phase isthat although the Model-158 airframe design is deriving a ratherlower fuel-tanks capacity, a plausible fuel tank design may allow morethan 1.5 hours of Long-Range-Cruise flight at true airspeed of morethan 300 knots / 25,000 feet! Added to this performance aspect is thephenomenal high rate of climb which is similar, if not greater thanmost light turbojet military trainers, and you get a very useful crosscountry sport aircraft which can cover a LOT of ground from oneairport to another.

This usability "extension" (extending the usability from a simple"stick and throttle" racing aircraft to a fully featured cross-countryaircraft) derived the need to design necessary equipment and system,such as anti and de-icing systems for the airframe and engines,pressurization and Oxygen systems, a robust fuel system withcross-feed capability and other considerations...and so forth...

This project would have been a "science fiction" experiment outsideX-Plane 11. However...it fits exactly into X-Plane's "DNA", where theScience and Fiction are being fused together in its sophisticatedsystems and flight dynamics simulation. When this fusion is engineeredand constructed professionally, a plausible result in X-Plane 11 willmirror plausible insights regarding the real-world aspects, and thisis THE MOST EXCITING PART when you decide to enter X-Plane'sworld.

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