Beechcraft Duke before conversion, with dual 380 hp piston engines still mounted.
Beechcraft Duke (now a Royal Turbine) after conversion to dual 550 hp engines. Everything from the firewall forward is converted.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
It's not Rocket Science...
...but it is Rocket Engineering. Some of you might be wondering what I'm doing with my life right now, besides school. Right now, I'm blessed to be employed at a place called Rocket Engineering, where I get to help "soup up" airplanes! We take Beechcraft Dukes and Bonanzas, as well as Piper Malibus (all piston-engined aircraft) and convert them to turboprops! For example, the Beechcraft Duke starts with two 380 hp piston engines. We remove them, and fit the aircraft with a pair of Pratt & Whitney PT-6 engines, each generating 550 hp. The aircraft's performance jumps through the roof! Our converted plane is then called a Royal Turbine.
Beechcraft Duke before conversion, with dual 380 hp piston engines still mounted.
Beechcraft Duke (now a Royal Turbine) after conversion to dual 550 hp engines. Everything from the firewall forward is converted.
Beechcraft Duke before conversion, with dual 380 hp piston engines still mounted.
Beechcraft Duke (now a Royal Turbine) after conversion to dual 550 hp engines. Everything from the firewall forward is converted.
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9 comments:
Pretty sweet, dude. Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself! Now I can say I have a friend who's a rocket scientist.
Show off! I don't know what half of those words mean. But I must say I'm prodigiously proud of you (yeah, go look that one up!)... we love to hear what's up in the life of our friend the Schultz-mo. ;)
Oh, and by the way, Amy's working on "Wedding Dress" on her gee-tar... but no success so far. (I'm not being mean, she told me to say that!) I think she has the first note down. She just strums the very first note and then hums the rest. It's quite comical, really.
I echo what Kristie says about the rocket scientist friend. I am always excited and encouraged to hear what is going on with you. Can't wait to talk to you tomorrow!
That's gotta be loads of fun. I'm assuming that you took those pictures really really early in the morning, which means that you probably start work pretty early. Or maybe not. ;) How long does it take to convert the engines?
Wow! That's crazy cool...
and btw, I am not that bad on my gee-tar (or whatever you want to call it). I just haven't had much success with that ONE song...hehehe...
good to hear from you, Jonathan!
nice!
Sounds like a great job for a pilot!
Hey Jonathan! Just wondering if you made it back safely to Spokane Washington! More blog updates would be greatly appreciated... :) and it was great having you guys over to are house and to be able to get to know your friends from Moody! Take care and hopefully we'll here more from you soon!
Just out of curiosity, what the status of the royal turbine project? Are they selling alot of them? There isn't much material on the net about it other than the royal turbine webpage. I can't find much info from owners/ people who have flown it. Is the plane living up to its potential, or is it going nowhere? I've been curious about the plane ever since i first read about it since it seems like a feasible alternative to the vlj's and SE turboprops.
Any info appreciated
Thanks,
Joseph
Thanks for visiting Joseph!
I started up my A&P schoolwork full-time, so I haven't been working at Rocket Engineering since September '07. At the time I was there, however, I believe we were working on Royal Turbine #10. While I was there, the Royal Turbine hangar gradually filled with more Dukes awaiting conversions. Plenty of people line up to get a turbine conversion, but it does take time (about 4 months from the time work is actually started on the plane, as I recall). As a result, the demand was far higher than what Rocket could supply, but this was much more intense in the winter. The problem is, most aircraft owners like to be flying their planes in good flying weather, so business drops like a lead balloon during the summer. The mechanics that were flooded with work in the wintertime gradually had less planes to convert once the good weather rolled in.
About your specific question: "Is the plane living up to its potential, or is it going nowhere?" Unfortunately, I've been out of the loop myself for the past 5 months. I don't know exactly what its "potential" is. If you're meaning "is it living up to its performance reputation?" then yes. As I see it, the main issue with the Royal Turbine will be economic: working out the rest of the kinks in its supply vs. its demand.
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