Bell & Ross BR-Bird Racer

[Mark Nankivil]

Good Day All -

An interesting design - hope they actually build it.

https://www.flyer.co.uk/bell-ross-announces-br-bird-to-race-at-reno/

Enjoy the Day! Mark

 

[Mark Nankivil]

...and a few more....

 

[yasotay]

Love air racing! Nice looking bird, but, lateral control?

 

[Foo Fighter]

Nice looking bird but I cannot take them seriously, they do not know the origins of the RR Griffon engine. Are these guys serious or joke writers?

Talking about the article rather than the designers.

 

[galgot]

Wow, it's a beauty ... And beautiful model too.
But then how do they cool the Griffon, can't see no coolers there. Or are they these small scoop at the wing root ?
Also it as a very small rudder for such an high torque engine like the griffon. maybe even if computer controlled. I would at least extend it over the tailplane.

 

[Foo Fighter]

Perhaps the partial V tail helps with vertical stability/control.

 

[TomS]

There's also a scoop on the underside of the fuselage just ahead of the wing, with outlets along the fuselage side aft of the wing. I'm not an engineer, but it does seem undersized for the amount of cooling this engine would probably need. Perhaps clever inlet design can help?

 

[galgot]

Kind of "designer's dream" design
Agree it's beautiful, but I would expect the thing to change a bit if made for real, at least to have that Griffon cooled fine.

 

[sferrin]

hope it has better luck than the Pond Racer.

 

[TomS]

Nice looking bird but I cannot take them seriously, they do not know the origins of the RR Griffon engine. Are these guys serious or joke writers?

Talking about the article rather than the designers.

The actual Bell & Ross website is more confusing -- it says "the BR-Bird is powered by a V12 Rolls Royce Falcon developed on a Merlin base." Well, of course, the original RR Falcon is a much older engine than the Merlin, so that's nonsense, unless they're making a new Merlin derivative and confusingly using the old name.

https://www.bellross.com/mods/watches/Racing-Bird/

 

[djfawcett]

If by some miracle it was built, a entirely new class of racer would be required for Reno. It has too much horsepower for Sport, and undoubtedly, it would be way too light for unlimited. With that being said, sure would be neat to see fly! - oooopppppssss-I meant to say cubic inches

 

[djfawcett]

............Of course, that is assuming you could keep the pointy end with the prop pointed in the direction of flight.

 

[TomS]

If by some miracle it was built, a entirely new class of racer would be required for Reno. It has too much horsepower for Sport, and undoubtedly, it would be way too light for unlimited. With that being said, sure would be neat to see fly!

You know, that just made sense. What if it really is a Sport Class plane with a new "RR Falcon" engine designed by scaling down a Merlin design to roughly the same scale as the old Falcon (the original was ~866 cubic inches).

Edit: Alternatively, I notice that the bell & Ross website says the plane is "the brainchild of Bruno Belamich." Well, he's a founder of the company, which makes watches, not airplanes. He is an industrial designer by training, which doesn't necessarily suggest a complete understanding of aeronautical engineering. So think inspirational design, not necessarily a working aircraft as currently drawn.

 

[galgot]

If by some miracle it was built, a entirely new class of racer would be required for Reno. It has too much horsepower for Sport, and undoubtedly, it would be way too light for unlimited. With that being said, sure would be neat to see fly!

Agree. btw , been watching this interesting presentation :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWR64fXd3fA
Part 4 of 5 about the Pond Racer, but it’s also very interesting in that it mention all the other custom made unlimited racers. One thing surprised me about the Renegade Unlimited Racer (at 5:57), it says it was not qualified for reno as being too light.
The speaker says that it should be allowed to compete, As it’s piston engined and prop, it’s in the unlimited category and weight as nothing to do with it.
Anyways… dunno much about Reno's rules.

 

[circle-5]

I'll bet 25¢ that it ends up looking very different, if it's ever built.

 

[Sundog]

Based on what their website reads, it seems this is just an industrial designer's idea of how a modern Reno Racer may look. It wasn't designed by an aeronautical engineer based on what I've read there. It looks cool, but I think if it is to be a legitimate design, it would probably suffer from a wing rock issue at moderate to high alpha, which would require a redesign of the wing root to fuselage interface at the leading edge. It kind of reminds me of something that Daniel Simon would design; which is a compliment.

 

[sferrin]

Based on what their website reads, it seems this is just an industrial designer's idea of how a modern Reno Racer may look. It wasn't designed by an aeronautical engineer based on what I've read there. It looks cool, but I think if it is to be a legitimate design, it would probably suffer from a wing rock issue at moderate to high alpha, which would require a redesign of the wing root to fuselage interface at the leading edge. It kind of reminds me of something that Daniel Simon would design; which is a compliment.

Cosmic Motors is an awesome book. B)

 

[CJGibson]

TomS - 'The actual Bell & Ross website is more confusing -- it says "the BR-Bird is powered by a V12 Rolls Royce Falcon developed on a Merlin base." Well, of course, the original RR Falcon is a much older engine than the Merlin, so that's nonsense, unless they're making a new Merlin derivative and confusingly using the old name.'

There were two post war Rolls-Royce engines called Falcon. One was the Turbo-Griffon mentioned in a tender design document for a flying boat while the other was described as a 100-litre 24-cylinder H-configuration. I've tried to track both down with no success.

Somehow I doubt either is in the B-R Bird.

Chris

 

[AeroFranz]

Agree. btw , been watching this interesting presentation :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWR64fXd3fA
Part 4 of 5 about the Pond Racer, but it’s also very interesting in that it mention all the other custom made unlimited racers. One thing surprised me about the Renegade Unlimited Racer (at 5:57), it says it was not qualified for reno as being too light.
The speaker says that it should be allowed to compete, As it’s piston engined and prop, it’s in the unlimited category and weight as nothing to do with it.
Anyways… dunno much about Reno's rules.

Cool presentation, I watched the five videos. Some very interesting information. The author goes a bit off the rails in part 5 by putting on the tin-foil hat and talking about B-2 electro-gravitation-propulsion and the military-industrial complex (or something like that, i tuned out once i heard where he was going). Still, interesting review of innovative racer concepts.

 

[RobertWL]

I'm going to go out on a limb and presume they're not talking about the Rolls Royce Falcon, but the Falconer V12.
Which is an automotive V12 that was used to power the Thunder Mustang.
https://www.falconerengines.com/

I could be wrong, but it just makes more sense. I'll chalk the website off to people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.

 

[TomS]

None of it makes sense, but the "Falconer" isn't a Rolls-Royce and has no relation to the Merlin, so I think that's unlikely. I keep circling back to the notion that this is basically industrial design (concept art), not actual aircraft design, so the description is largely fictional. As far as we know, no actual engineering-level design has been done.

 

[LowObservable]

Pretty CGI.

Otherwise - from the complete absence of information relating to a design team, the lack of a cooling system, oversized wing/body fillets which are going to do some quite entertaining things to the longitudinal stability, and the fact that RR's lawyers are going to bite your ****** off for using their name on a new engine (vs you being clearly liable for what you do with a Merlin or Griffon)... let's just say I'm skeptical.

But you can already walk into Barney's in New York and buy a $2,300 Racing Bird watch, and the people who are likely to do this do not worry about cooling systems or transonic propellers or boost or BMEP. Mission accomplished!