The team’s 2016-2017 “off season” was, in the words of Paulo, “INTENSE”! Due to the shipment requirements to Abu Dhabi, just one month was given to complete everything on our checklist! This year we had three main goals: reduce weight, increase control over engine temperature, and develop winglets to better fit the racing environment.
Reduce Weight
When 14KN was originally built, it sported a blue and silver paint scheme. With the revival of the air races in 2014, the Red Bull paint scheme, as we know it today, was applied over the pre-existing paint job. A lot of paint meant a lot of weight! Even with only one month available, we decided to sand the wing down to carbon and refinish it.
“It was MASSIVE work! Hours and hours went into sanding it all down. I will not say how much weight we saved, but I can tell you that Kirby is back to eating desserts!” – Paulo
Because time was short, we also decided to build new wheel pants last minute! For that, the use of 3D scanning and CNC machines made a HUGE difference. Not only does the new design provide a perfect fit, they’re now super light!
Increase Control Over Engine Temperature
We’ve learned throughout the years that the engine needs to be at a certain temperature to produce the correct power. Because it is air-cooled, we needed to find a more efficient way to cool the cylinder heads and the oil. Previously, this was all done as one system. Modifications to the cowling last year improved cooling, but ideally, we wanted to have oil cooling and cylinder cooling separated into two systems. Paulo was able to design a new system that allows just that.
“Again, I will not give away any numbers, but this is WAY better than it was for the 2016 season. Jason’s also happy because the new system makes his life much easier during ferry flights!” – Paulo
Winglet Development
Through a lot of data analysis, we found that our winglets were doing their job throughout the turns in the race track. However, they created quite a lot of drag when trying to fly a straight line. With the help of good friend Jac Van Egmond, lead aerodynamicist of mvAERO (mvaero.nl), Paulo created a whole new design to optimize the overall energy saved. These new winglets have proven to be good not only in our simulations, but also during the in-flight flow visualization.
As you can see, it was a BUSY month! A lot of time, a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! And now? A lot of expectations for the 2017 season!
