The process of designing a new engine system has been a challenge but we have now reached completion of our goal. The engine system itself has been running flawlessly. Where we encountered the greatest challenges was initially mating our new ECU's with the new turbo-charged engine.

The VPS ENGINE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
VPS has the experience, the equipment and the technology to analyze and cure the valve train and other Rotorway engine problems. Our engine designer Andrew Burr has considerable experience in the development of high performance engines,cylinder heads, and racing drive trains. In 2006 we began undertaking a development program on this engine to address the cylinder corrosion and wear, the valve train reliability issues and to increase the power output by means of state-of-the-art high-quality cylinders, pistons, rods, valve train components and other enhancements. VPS has worked with the leading engine component engineers and manufacturers to develop latest-technology cam shafts, the valve rocker system, intake and exhaust valve systems, new pistons, rings, and connecting rods, and the latest generation in Electronic Computer engine controls.

Following the successful Beta test program, VPS will offer the conversion of the Rotorway engine to the VPS normally aspirated engine to existing Rotorway engine owners. We are presently developing our own engine castings and crank shaft so that VPS will manufacture totally our own engine for the both the experimental and LSA market.

The upgrade program for Rotorway owners will offer at least the following processes:

1Customer removing the engine from the airframe or a VPS technitian can travel to the customer and provide that service,
2.Crating and shipping the engine to VPS, LLC engine shop in Cassville, MO,
3.VPS teardown and Inspect and Repair An Necessary of the engine castings,
4.VPS replacement of the camshaft, lifters, pushrods, valves, springs, keepers, base washers, modification of the cylinder heads, rocker system, head bolts, gaskets, pistons, rings, rods, and other engine components,
5.VPS blueprint/rebuild of the engine,
6.Installation of VPS ECU's and Coil packs, and plug and play wire harness,
7.VPS dyno-test of the engine,
8.VPS crating and shipping back to the customer,
9.Reinstallation in the airframe, with the assistance of a VPS technician if desired,
10.Producing an installation and operation manual, and
11.Ongoing support of the VPS engine system..

10/1/09 We have now fully "mapped" and integrated our new Electronic control modules to control the VP engine throughout all RPM ranges.

In the photo below Russ Platt, our first beta tester looks on as his new VPS engine is being run in.

In the photo below, VPS beta tester for engine number 4, Mike Doles, watches Andrew Burr run engine in the dyno before placing it in the crate for shipping back to Arizona where it has been installed in Mike's Rotorway helicopter.

It took several months to build and outfit our dyno room. We purchased a used walk-in freezer to function as our dyno room engine test center. The walls are very thick and well insulated to contain the noise of the engine testing. They are covered with galvanized steel inside and out which is a good for fire suppression. We also have the ability to "cold soak" our engines to test them at very low temperatures.

Andrew Burr built the dyno stand, control panels, dyno cooling system and engine cooling system, as well as installing the power, control, and monitor wiring over the course of several more weeks.

The photo above shows the VPS engine and dyno water break during the construction of the dyno stand.

The photo above shows the dyno stand being fitted with all of the needed brackets and hard points required for dyno testing of the VPS engines

The above photo shows the completed dyno stand during installation into our walk-in-cooler dyno room.

We had a custom drive shaft built to our specifications and installed a heavy flywheel to dampen the engine pulses to the dyno. Once all was in place with the engine and turbo installed the dyno testing of the new VPS turbocharged engine began in earnest. Below you can see the engine in the Dyno stand with most system hook-ups nearly completed. Andrew developed the turbocharged version of the engine first so that he could produce the most power and torque possible in order to test the integrity of all of the VPS engine components.

He ran this turbocharged engine on the dyno for many hours at the maximum of 236 hp with no measurable wear on any components. These high stress loads on the engine components could only be produced with a turbocharged engine run on a dyno to proove the internal components design.

The first phase of the testing was to map the new ECUs that will be controlling the engine throughout the full RPM range. This is a laborious process and is accomplished in a methodical step by step sequence to insure that the engine will have the proper timing and optimum fuel to air ratio for every RPM range and loading that the engine will encounter when installed in the helicopter or airplane. Once the mapping process has been completed, that MAP is then downloaded onto each pair of ECUs that will accompany each VPS engine in the Dyno room during the run-in testing prior to shipment of the engine with it's ECUs and wire harness to our customers.

The photo below was taken once the dyno testing was well under way and shows the dyno control console in it's original configuration.

Although it has been a long road to get to this point, the new VPS engine is performing as well as we expected it to. Here is a sample of the power that the new engine is producing:

At 4420 RPM, which produces a main rotor RPM at the top of the green arc of 104.%, we are consistently seeing 282 Ft/Lbs of torque and producing a true 236 horsepower with our turbocharged version.

Of course we will not be using all of that power in the experiemental helicopter application as we will de-rate the engine by placing manifold pressure limitations to insure long term reliability. In the experimental helicopter application, with the engine running at the top of the green arc on the Main Rotor RPM gauge, the engine will be required to produce a maximum horsepower for flight of only 150 HP which is the design limit of the rotor system on our test ship. The engine power will be derated to a maximum of 150 HP by limiting the manifold pressure to around 27".

During typical cruise flight the test helicopter model requires around 120 HP. This means that the VPS turbocharged engine is only running at only at about the 50% power setting under those conditions..

Reliability testing is continuing at our VPS engine test site and we have now removed the VPS engine from the Dyno and installed it into our test helicopter where it is undergoing rigorous in-flight testing.

The next step will be the assembly and dyno run-in of 5 more normally aspirated engines that will begin Beta flight testing in the field. The Dyno testing of our normally aspirated engine has been completed and the first Beta Test engine is already in the field undergoing flight testing. We currently have orders for four more Beta test engines that will be built in the first half of 2010 which will be placed in various customer-owned helicopters for further in-flight testing. One engine will be on the East Coast in North Carolina, one on the Texas Gulf Coast, one in the high altitude areas of Arizona where it will be landed at the 8,000 ft. MSL range, and one on the West Coast of Northern California, and one in the Midwest in Ohio. This geographical sampling of test environments will give us the actual flight information on the performance of our engines in a variety of different flight conditions.

Once we are confident that we have achieved all of our goals of durability and reliablity for this engine, we will begin providing engines to our growing list of potential retail customers for both the experimental and LSA markets.

Rotorway Helicopter owners will appreciate the new VPS true redundant engine control system.

If either VPS computer fails, the engine continues to run on the other computer with no changes in operation as all functions are controlled by both computers concurrently. The pilot simply sees an on-dash computer fault indicator. The engine runs identically with either or both computers on line providing true redundancy and back-up capability.

The VP turbocharged engine has been "abused" for many months now during full-power dyno testing. The engine is now currently undergoing flight testing to altitude at full gross weight.

We have received a number of inquiries from both helicopter and fixed wing manufacturers regarding the capabilities and availability of the VP engines for their particular applications. VPHelo, LLc will begin by providing our engines for the builder-owned Rotorway and Safari kit built helicopters utilizing the existing Rotorway engine castings. We will soon begin producing our own castings thereby producing the entire VP engine for sale to the Experimental and non-certified LSA market.

The engine certification process has been initiated with the FAA representatives visiting our engine factory in Cassville, Mo. It now appears that we are on track to have our VPS engine LSA certified by years end, time will tell.

We will keep the web site updated as we determine the power output of the normally aspirated version of our new engine. That update is now---We are now producing 171 to 172 HP on the VPS normally aspirated engine for the Rotorway helicopter. This will give amazing high altitude landing and take-off performance.

To read more about our in-flight engine testing

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