Archive:Algie Composite Aircraft
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The LP1 at Oshkosh 2005
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Turbo system layout
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LP1 carbon fiber gearbox installation
Algie Composite Aircraft is a kit aircraft company that is producing the LP1 kit. This is a high performance two seat aircraft, featuring all carbon fiber/ Nomex honeycomb construction. Using modern composite fabrication techniques, it has an empty airframe weight at 210 LBS. It is desinged for high altitude cruise flight at high speed, cruise is 385 MPH at 29,000 FT. The LP1 employs an elliptical wing planform for minimised induced drag. One of the unusual features of this design is it's cockpit pressurisation system. The cockpit is fed from a large turbocharger, along with the engine. This turbo is capable of engine normalisation to FL300, and it has no cockpit regulator, therefore the cockpit also is normalised- to sea level pressure at this altitude, approx. 10 PSI differential. The cabin door is of a plug type design, it retract upwards and into the cabin roof area. Another innovative design feature is the cooling system. The engine has two angular mounted radiators that reside behind the cockpit seatbacks. These are fed cooling air from a large bellypan mounted NACA duct below the cockpit. Integrally designed with the cooling system is the turbo/ wastegate exhaust, which serves to scavenge the radiator exit air by high energy siphon principles, accelerating the low energy exit air to close to the free stream speeds. This gives the system the potential to reduce cooling drag to very low levels.