THE SECOND

WANKEL

Powered
Aircraft. . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stan Tonkin's (EAA 20801) first venture in aviation was three model airplanes he had on display at the "Century of Progress" World's Fair in
1933. Started in aviation in 1936, A & E Licensed in 1940. Two years in
Georgia, Civilian Flight Schools, three years in Air Force, Flight Engineer
on B-17's and B-24's. Past 30 years in General Aviation. FAA ratings held
are A & P, Commercial SMEL, Instrument and Instructor.

By Stan Tonkin (EAA 20801)

9S 114 Aero Dr.
Naperville, III. 60540
(Pnotos by the Author)

S,SOMETIME

BACK, i read in

SPORT AVIATION where someone

said, "Sooner or later someone is going to come up with a Wankel powered light plane."
Well, we came up with a flying
Wankel plane in June of 1970. We
being the owner and designer, Mr.
Stan Corcoran of New Lennox, 111.
Stan is an old timer in the design
and manufacturing of gliders and ultra light aircraft. The other part of
"we" was yours truly, the builder.

This aircraft was an all metal, pop

rivet, biplane with a 30 ft. span. It
had flaps on both wings and no landing gear just one wheel and brake

The all metal biplane used as a test bed for the Wankel engine installation.
The little machine was designed by Stan Corcoran of New Lennox, Illinois
and built by Stan Tonkin.

in the keel, as any good glider or

sailplane designer would have.

Long before the aircraft was finished, weeks of research and development work went into the powerplane
installationand reduction drive. First,

a mock-up of the fuselage section

adjacent to the engine mount was
built. This was an exact duplicate,
as to material, rivet spacing, engine
attach points, etc. Then, this mock-up

was affixed to a platform on wheels

and could be moved outdoors for engine test runs. The mock-up was to
test engine mount rubbers, vibration,
engine attach points, mount fatigue,
rivet shear or loosening also, to
work out as many bugs as possible
before we moved out to the airport,
as we did our building in a shop in
town.
Our first try was with the engine
mounted low on the top deck of the
fuselage with the pusher propeller
mounted two feet above the engine.
This arrangement didn't work out, as
it proved difficult to dampen the whip
in the drive belts. Next, we raised
the engine up close to the prop and
used short belts. With this mock-up
we tried many arrangements of engine mounts, drive belts, exhaust
stacks, muffler arrangements and numerous propellers. Speaking of pro30 MARCH 1974

pellers, Mr. Corcoran once manufactured props for drones during

World War II. Our test props were
made with fiber-glass epoxy.
The powerplant for this airplane
was a Sachs Wankel of 20 hp., the
same model as used in snowmobiles.
It was mounted as a pusher. The 40
inch prop was driven by 4 matched

"V" belts going between a crankshaft

pulley and a bearing box mounting a
prop pulley on top of the engine. Within 20 minutes the reduction pulleys

and gear could be removed and a

smaller prop attached to the crankshaft for a direct drive version. Of
the two, the reduction drive gave better performance and the noise level
was cut down considerably. This engine had a muffler also. The pull
cable for starting was mounted on

R. S. Corcoran and the rotary engined

biplane blast off the second Wankel powered aircraft to fly, according
to the author. Can anyone dispute his
claim?

the cockpit floor.

FAA gave N-11RC a license on
June 22, 1970.
Although the airplane flew well,
it was under-powered. The most severe problem was blisters on the hand
from pulling the rope starter as the
small wood prop was not much of a
flywheel. Later the Sachs was replaced with a Kawasaki 436cc engine.

This engine had more power and an

electric starter. Many successful
flights were made with this powerplant.
By the way, the first Wankel powered aircraft was the "Q-Star" built
by Lockheed Aircraft.

Another angle of the Sachs.

Side view of the Sachs Wankel installation. The belt reduction system,
carb and muffler are visible from this
angle.

This shot provides the perspective to make one realize how small the Sachs
Wankel really is even including the belt drive reduction unit. The all
metal airframe of N-11RC is interesting, also.

Rear view of the air cooled Sachs

Wankel. This engine has been used
successfully for a number of years
in snowmobiles without the fanfare new auto rotaries are now receiving.
SPORT AVIATION 31