Hi,

I will describe this ongoing project here. Be patient, it may take a few months to complete, as I will try to make it right the first time...

This aircraft is "STOL", meaning it can fly really very slow, in order to land and take-off in very short distances. The propeller is therefore not orientated exactly in the fuselage axis, this to counteract the engine torque and keep a good control on the rudder and elevator at low speeds by flowing the air in spiral around the tail.

The speed tops around 180km/h, so this machine is very usable for local fun and a bit of travel. It is a re-engineered Zenair CH701, with improved wings and better overall performances, (and construction too) so the shape looks very similar, but there is no common parts.
The manufacturer of the kit is usually fitting Rotax 912 engines, and my wish is to re-use my actual Jabiru engine wich was fitted to my previous aeroplane.

(this previous aeroplane (X-AIR) is as new, I flew less than 20 hours, and is for sale half of its retail price; It is located in France. For more details please contact me)

And the trick is that, as far as I know, there is no bonnet for this aircraft/engine anywhere available that I can use as a modell .

The engine has been already fitted to the aircraft cell, I made a temporary adjustable support in order to get the unit with the propeller positionned exactly same as with a rotax engine, and at the same distance from the firewall.

The ground-test was fine, so the next steps will be:

- Fabricate the final engine frame, based on the actual dimensions of the temporary support, using chrome-Moly steel
- Remove everything down to the firewall keeping in mind the position of the propeller and the required air scoops
- shape a volume of what will be the future bonnet, top and bottom, and surface it properly.
- Make a mould of this volume
- Fabricate the bonnet in two parts in Carbon fiber
- Paint and finish in Yellow and Aluminium colour.