Autorotating wing

[DannytheRadomski]

So I was thinking about autogyros (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro) and the fan car(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_car#Brabham_BT46B_.E2.80.93_the_.22Fan_car.22) , and what if you mated the two. An autogyro gets its lift because the propeller on top autorotates; it isn't powered. So what if you flip over the autogyro "wing" and used it for downforce? Also, would the downforce increase exponentially as speed increases?

I'm more interested in whether or not this would work than whether or not it would be allowed in FSAE(due to decapitation hazard, I'll make an educated guess and say it wouldn't).

[MCoach]

If you check the rules, fan cars are explicitly banned.

[DannytheRadomski]

First off, I just want to know whether or not it would work.

Second, it wouldn't be a fan car in the sense of the Brabham BT46. The "fan" would be unpowered and act as a wing.

[AxelRipper]

I'd guess that it would likely work, however it also seems like it would add a lot of drag and the vibrations would be... interesting... on the racetrack. Also, having a moving mass that high up on your vehicle wouldn't exactly be nice with respect to weight transfer and cornering forces.

Slap a mockup on an R/C car and drive it around, see what happens.

[dprmb]

on that fan car being explicitly banned: my understanding is that fans can only be used for the cooling system. If you happen to mount your radiators horizontally and close to the ground = fan car? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[DougMilliken]

Originally posted by dprmb:
...If you happen to mount your radiators horizontally and close to the ground = fan car? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif
or clogged radiators.

Back on topic, I hope you try an auto gyro on an R/C car, that could be instructive.

[DannytheRadomski]

What about mounting it as an undertray sort of thing? It would have to be smaller, and it would probably be less effective. But as far as packaging goes, that would be as good as it could get.

[Rory Hourihan]

Sounds like you're trying to turn your car into a lawnmower now haha

[DannytheRadomski]

Injecting practicality into a FSAE car never hurt anybody.

[AxelRipper]

Originally posted by dprmb:
on that fan car being explicitly banned: my understanding is that fans can only be used for the cooling system. If you happen to mount your radiators horizontally and close to the ground = fan car? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

Why not just duct the inlet for your air cooled engine?

[Scott Wordley]

Danny, I cant see why your idea wouldn't work in principle. The blade twist angle is simply reversed

The inertial effects on the blade might do weird things when you corner though. Autogyros would never experience the amount of yaw/yaw acceleration that we do, so its not a problem there. Their forward speed is also more consistently high.

The outer track width limitations would mean the blade would have to be be pretty small.

It may not be practical but it is something that I would not have thought of. Good job.