Ultimate Mooney?

[N231BN]

The only problem is that composite is heavier than aluminum, and a pressure vessel is definitely heavier, so it would have to be a drone.

I was going to give him a little credit and say "that would make a great single-place airplane" but a drone is probably more appropriate.

[Austintatious]

2 hours ago, N231BN said:

3 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

The only problem is that composite is heavier than aluminum, and a pressure vessel is definitely heavier, so it would have to be a drone.

I was going to give him a little credit and say "that would make a great single-place airplane" but a drone is probably more appropriate.

If Cirrus can do it with a larger fuse and carry more weight, then so could Mooney.  May have to  keep the aluminum wing or make it a bit smaller, but it could be done, especially with carbon fiber.  I dont know why people keep saying "composites are heavier than aluminum"... this is just NOT true. (ok, fiberglass is but "composite" includes more than fiberglass,  even S glass is superior by 40-70 percent to E glass)

 

http://www.dexcraft.com/articles/carbon-fiber-composites/aluminium-vs-carbon-fiber-comparison-of-materials/

 

Here is an excerpt

 

Remembering the weight limit of 10 kg, the design engineer may choose:

• Steel slab about 1.5 mm thick.
• Aluminium slab about 4 mm thick.
• Carbon fiber slab about 7 mm thick.

Carbon fiber provides 2 essential benefits.

Carbon fiber offers more stiffness (as described above) at lower density and consequently the product of the same weight may be thicker, that will result in stiffness improved by increased thickness alone. To put it simply, material thickness increased x 2 provides rigidity of 2³ – so about 8 times more. This provides many opportunities with regard to weight reduction thanks to the use of carbon fiber.

[carusoam]

Comparing like for like parts...

we could weigh cowl parts...

Aluminum

fiberglass

carbon fiber

The Ultra’s cowl is feather lite....

Best regards,

-a-