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The Bugatti P100 Project has been building a complete replica of the prototype air racer over the past few years and I've been following them on Facebook. Yesterday they had their initial test flight. All went (kinda) well. Landing was a bit rough . . . right brake failure on rollout and went into the grass. Tires dug in and she nosed over, damaging the spinner and both props. Soooo . . . any one you can walk away from?

I came by this aircraft when checking out Lionheart Creations, Ltd some years ago and was fascinated by the design. I was still more fascinated when I realized that this was a real aircraft, not one of William Ortiz's ideas. I bought the original package of the air racer for FS9 (gonna have to check it in FSX . . .) and loved flying it.


EDIT:

Just looked at my original copy of the package and all of the gauges are GAU files. No XML at all. So, probably won't work in FSX . . . unless I get really creative and try to do the panel myself.

Very interesting. I rarely read several pages of a website but I did this one. Also never knew Bugatti had an aircraft project - being a long time admirer of their cars which were/are unsurpassed -

It LOOKS to my eye intrinsically unstable - torque being a problem. No doubt I'm wrong.

Will be fascinating to see how it progresses. Was interested to see the backers as this must be costing quite a hunk of cash.

Edit: I now see in the video that some of the drawings have counter rotating props - thus fixing the torque problems. (but the replica doesn't seem to have that) - Also - wonder if the final will be wood? Presumed it would be formed aluminium ... will see

More recent video -- hard to know where they're up to now ?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhoJ-_HiCb0[/youtube]

Many thanks!

A fascinating video of one of Ettore Bugatti's masterpieces*....

..as always, spoilt with annoying music, vocal effects, etc, thumping in the background, and overpowering the commentary!

A common annoyance in all interesting documentaries nowadays, in particular by the BBC!

Much though we may all complain, nothing is done to prevent it!

Paul.

* Bugatti Type 13, 35B, 58.... ...!

Pete, the original aircraft was a wooden frame (mostly balsa) that was then covered in doped fabric. The proposed fighter variant (P110) would have been wrapped in aluminum, and I'm sure it would have had some other main structural elements made of it as well.

I'm almost positive that the replica has the same sort of CR prop setup as the original. What really interested me about that particular part of the aircraft was that the engines are mounted directly inline with each other, but the shafts are not sleeved one inside the other as you would normally imagine. The engines are both canted a few degrees port or starboard so that the prop shafts enter the actual cockpit on either side of the pilot's ass. Then, through a series of universal joints the two shafts then converge in a gearbox just forward of the main panel in the cockpit. Unfortunately, the specifics of what happened once the shafts entered the gearbox is unknown since the prototype was stripped of all useful metal materials before being completely forgotten in a shed in France some time in the 60s. So the restoration and the subsequent build of the replica was done with a bit of "educated guessing", i.e. - they just went with what sounded right.

Aside from the complicated engine setup, Bugatti also incorporated some other interesting design parameters. I'm not positive, but it might have been the first aircraft to make use of the Y-tail design, something Bill Lear later decided would work well with his Lear Fan. There was also the small idea to tie the flap condition to the altimeter, giving the pilot the ability to set the altitude that the flaps would start lowering and not have to worry about taking his hands off the throttle to mess with it. I'm not sure if that last one made it into the current aircraft, since it seems like there could be some potential issues with it. The flaps were also part of the spoiler system. If you opened the spoilers, the flaps would move as well and then lower some more if you dropped in flap controls, as you can see below:



Oh, and she should move at a sultry 500 mph in level flight once they throttle her up . . .

Fascinating project!!

The engines are both canted a few degrees port or starboard so that the prop shafts enter the actual cockpit on either side of the pilot's ass. Then, through a series of universal joints the two shafts then converge in a gearbox just forward of the main panel in the cockpit.

Sounds like an engineering nightmare to me .... maybe the base reason it never reached the air .. (??)

I have a brother who is an industrial designer who always has a bin full of throw away bits -- to me that's a bin full of progress .... every painful step walking up a steep mountain

Plus .. engineering in those days jumped in miles .. as anyone who visits a good aircraft or auto museum can tell .. 1900 - 1950 - just amazing.

Really hope these guys get this thing flying!

The Golden Age of Flying was a free-thinking engineers wet dream.

. . . and the only reason it never really reached the air in 1939 was because WWII started and they didn't want the Nazi's to get their hands on it. If it actually flew like it does in the sim, it could easily have rivaled anything the Allies could have thrown at it. IF it behaved like it does in the sim . . .

That being said, we all know how flippant FS9 was about flight dynamics . . .

Good to see it has flown. It was far ahead of its time, even when you consider the progress the German and British aircraft industries were making during the period. Just looking at it you can see some familiar features that would be commonplace post war (Fouga Magister?) and a similar construction technique to that favour by De Havilland. A beautiful creature - even if now it's powered by a pair of Hayabusa engines! To go with the in line 8s in the original at a time when everyone else thought speed came by bolting a small airframe (Me209? Napier Heston?) to a ginormous engine was a refreshing concept.

Someone made (a then) decent one for MSFS years ago - must've been the late 90s - a site specialising in 30s vintage props... Back when I was a kid...

I suppose one of the main reasons I really love it is simply for the radical design of the airframe. You can't mistake it for any other aircraft, even at a distance. It reminds me of the crazy configurations on some of the aircraft in Porco Rosso. Much more graceful in physique than a fair number of her contemporaries . . .

pete wrote:Very interesting. I rarely read several pages of a website but I did this one. Also never knew Bugatti had an aircraft project - being a long time admirer of their cars which were/are unsurpassed -

It LOOKS to my eye intrinsically unstable - torque being a problem. No doubt I'm wrong.

Will be fascinating to see how it progresses. Was interested to see the backers as this must be costing quite a hunk of cash.

Edit: I now see in the video that some of the drawings have counter rotating props - thus fixing the torque problems. (but the replica doesn't seem to have that) - Also - wonder if the final will be wood? Presumed it would be formed aluminium ... will see

More recent video -- hard to know where they're up to now ?

I found this video of the first ¿Flight? ¿Grasshoper hop? whatever, but successfull & brake problem included: "if you can walk away from this landing... "
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lstv7QjL7BM[/youtube]

This link includes more videos: The History Of The Bugatti 100P, And Why It Took 77 Years For Its First Flight

That is indeed the first flight. Although I'm not sure why the gear coverings aren't on the struts . . .

I noticed that they put modernized scimitar blades on her instead of traditional ones. Wonder what that does to the power output . . .