R=6 1 MICHAEL FRIEND EXAMINES A NEW FORMULA ONE CONTENDER FROM THE DRAWING BOARD OF MIKE ARNOLD | Al sleek new shape has taken to nowertired Formula One racer of the ofthe Rano airtoct last decade, So wht Hic wl the curse, anit seems tobe folowing AF-S need to have ups sleeve i ii ithe oot orisetiig ito reeci tee seers? predecessor ‘The AR-6is the latest’ _Paticvar attention hasbeen pal jn fom the drawing board of he engine cooing. David Hoover Arnold a designer whe In 1982 worked with serodynamicist Dav lan Faltfedeation Arona. Ledhfcer to manage ha aia internalonaD sp fants thacomd orc daceordes inan aeroplane dhe AR bya 65 horsepower Rotax LOADS OF UPTO ores Inpresive enugh ts ear he SEVEN GS HAVE the prestigious touts Erot medal BEEN RECORDED! from the PAL If tek ks count fr anything the ARS may wel'sel is over the engine, and Mike Arno nn recurs designed the ext shape. There isa Tne AR-6 design was commissioned separate plenum box foreach set cf Paine eyiners, intial testing has shown anenterpising pict that works foo wel, with yinder She winayecsors learn (rorrine wad tmperatares athe way doen reco! to 127°C. Experiments to cut down on into Reno-winning speed around the _the already small intakes have now race pylons. Construction started in brought the temperatures up to the 1998, and first fight was achieved in °C considered optimal April 2005, Another subtle detail is the way that be up there with the winners, the the fuselage Is held at a constant |AR-6 must achieve an average lap -—_width to just near the wing trailing speed of around 250 miles per hour, ‘Aerodynamicist Bruct with a straight and level maximum armichael explains this trick, used of 217kts. These are previously on the AR-S: ay ‘numbers consistent with those put _as few drag points as possible on this up by Nemesis, the dominant but Important juncture, Arnold did nat allow the fuselage to contract until very near the wing tralling-edge. There is a stagnation-relieving fillet at the leading edge, a corner radius fillet and an expanding fillet on the aft portion to soften the adverse pressure gradient. The bottom of the wing is flush with the bottom of the fuselage, thus virtually eliminating two intersections. This juncture should help reduce the interference problem commen to low-wing aircraft, particularly at the higher lift co-efti- cients, and, no doubt, it helps also at high speed and low lift covefficients. Attention to small details ike this can make the difference between a good aoe Tbe wp the ith the winners, the Ae ‘must achieve strait Aan evel maxinum spe in excess of 274s (hs Senn Eve on Bao The ARG was esgned by Mike ‘Areolt o in 1992 Set an FAI Federation Aeronatique International spend cord of 16k with ‘ARS, This was pone bya65 hp Rota! (hacps Partiuar itetion has been pat be engine ceoing, there is. separate jun bx fo ach set cinders. er Antes sabe eats tne way tat Jb selge i neat start ih to ust rte wing taling ie. ior Te ARs ie with an Ovens insite proper, sess te 0-200 exes engine upto ty 4200rp. eshte ste putrid to just fri vigtraling ” Ez hes areal ‘Renaissance man’, moving ‘easly tween the worl of vdeo produc tion and aircraft design. He put inset ‘throu a self-actated cause incom posites, working in a glider repar shop and helping to buld the Rutan-desgned Ansol Racer. His ARS was a masterpiece, each etal so wall executed that aerodynamics Bruce Carmichael pa him this compliment “Engineering judgment and super detail design are found everynnere inthe ARS The words ‘engineering judgment are Important, as there are few people nthe world both experienced enough and canny enough tobe able to lend a myriad of structural and aerodynamic detals into a welritepratec aeroplane suchas the ARS. aeroplane and a truly fast one. During my discussions with Mike, he made a few observations about the design of the AR‘6, and how it was built. “if you cover the cow! on pictures of the AR-6, especially the Views from the front, you'll see that it's basically an AR-S with curves. They are both fow-wing, high aspect, ratio aeroplanes with razorback canopies. Both use solid foam-cored, laminar flow wings, and the landing gear geometry is basically the same. [used the same relationship between wing location and maximum fuselage cross-section on both aeroplanes. The main differences between the two are the result of the larger engine, and the fact that the AR-6 places much more emphasis on reducing wetted area on the fuselage. He commented on the part of the design that made him think the hardest, "I spent more time on the wing design than on any other part of the aeroplane. It was the first thing I designed. | had heard reports from Formula One pilots of other high aspect ratio racers being unusvally rough riding in turbulence, which | took to be the result of aero-elastic divergence. 1 had worried about it on the AR‘S, but its wing was so thick and stiff (1896 at the root) that it didn’t turn out to be a problem. The AR-6 wing is longer and thinner 14%), so 1 wanted to try to reduce or eliminate the tendency of the wing to increase its angle of attack when loaded, which is what | suspected was happening ‘on the other long-winged racers. | addressed the problem by using carbon fibre ‘D tube’ spar design, and covering the remainder of the wing with fibre-glass, thereby keeping the stiffest part of the structure as farforward as possible. David reports that it seems to work, and the initial testing shows that the aeroplane gives a smooth ride while having good roll response from the ailerons. Mike's friend Harry Riblett came up with a very promising airfoil, using the basic NLF (the airfoll Nemesis used) thickness distrioution, on a mean line ‘of his own design. He also did some magic’ on the wing leading edge. Mike did the intial design of the AR-6 in 1993, after meeting race pilot Troy Channing at Oshkosh. When Troy was killed later that year, he put the project aside. A meeting with Davia Hoover in 1997 re-ignited the design process and Mike finished detail design in 1998, Mike Arnold built the fuselage, com! rs The widest gear ves the ans oud runway nang Uncommon fora his strung race, ‘and canopy master plug. The firm of Composites Unlimited of Scapoose, Oregon, created the moulds and mak the carbon and honeycomb parts from them. Craig Cato, a well know West Coast composites fabr the wing and horizontal stabilizer, and David Hoover and friends assembled {and finished the aeroplane in Hayward, California. The engine comes from Ly- Con, a company with a great deal of ‘experience in making racing engines hhold together. The project started in 1998, and took five-and-a-half years of, made Davi Hoover, who comes from the San Francisco Bay ares, works inthe world ‘of finance. He began fing in 1981 ané received his PPL in 1962, whl til in igh School. His asociaton with Formula One began in 1951, when he started crewing for noted test pilot and racing plat Dave Moss In 1982 he Bought a tired ol Cassut, race number 66, and spent the next two years ‘completely rebliding the plane from the tubing upwards, with anew cou, baffles, ‘canopy tal, ee spas, fuel tan, and ‘covering the fuselage with foam and tioe-les. The new plane was given the nave Freny, and over the next sx years mas continually moified and updated. The empty weioht was reduced to 255kg from _270kg. When Dave Norss aalfied the lane in 1991, his speed was 150s. The Tas year that David qualified Frenzy, the speed was 212s ~ an increase of 62s! ‘As well as being a race pilot, David hasbeen President ofthe Internationa 1 Association and has serve asthe training plot for new entrants to the Facing crcl Ler Th sleek design has rested ina tit cockpit. of serious effort and many man-hours before it was ready for fight. Over the same period, David also started a ‘new family ~ the arrival of two children slowed down progress a bit David spent a long time getting the side'stick controller postion righ ing up several prototypes before setting on one that felt just right. As he had naver flown with one before, he was intially apprehensive, but has found that it feels very natural and allows him full rol control inthe tight confines of the racing cockpit. He has installed an armrest that allows him precise control, even in the bumpy Conditions around the race pylons. As late as August 2005, final sanding ‘and painting was getting underway The aeroplane appeared at the Reno Ali Races in September with a red fuselage, painted with race number 11 ‘and the name Endeavour. Of course, the inital plan was to complete it with plenty of time to spare, but this was an effort that went on right until the