High altitude research plane
Those are high altitude props, so they do look similar to the Celery 500.. But they look much bigger to me ..
the props have twice the diameter of the fuselage.. and they have 2 of them
And look at the wings on that Grob (sailplane manufacturer)
EDIT, apparantly that Grob strato is the current record holder for FL600 manned pisto/prop flight
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvrBvCLFfKX/?hl=en
Quote:
On this date in 1995, the Grob Strato 2C completed its first flight.
The Strato is completely insane.
Constructed from carbon fiber, its wingspan is greater than that of a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, and it‘s equipped with 19.5 ft (5.9m) diameter propellers that turned at just 650 rpm.
It had a staggering ceiling of 78,740 ft (24,000m), a maximum unrefuelled endurance of 48 hours, and a massive 11,246 mi (18,100 km) range.
You'd think that an aircraft that can achieve such incredible performance would be equipped with a pair of huge turboprop or turbojet engines.
But in fact, the Strato used the same basic engines as a Beechcraft Baron...two Continental TSIO-550 piston engines that produce a relatively meager 402hp each.
Granted, these engines were modified.
The standard turbocharger was removed from each engine, and like a Honda Civic in Southern California, an absurdly large compressor (from a 2,750hp PW127 turboprop as found on ATR-42 and ATR-72 turboprop airliners) was installed.
But despite the huge compressors, the basic engines were the same as those found on the Cirrus SR22 and Beechcraft Bonanza, and the compressors served only to cram as much air as possible into them to maintain horsepower at altitude, as opposed to cranking the horsepower to absurdly high levels.
All of these efforts were intended to carry a couple of scientists and their equipment to high altitudes, where they could conduct atmospheric studies.
But despite setting a world altitude record for manned piston-engined aircraft, cost overruns occurred and not all performance expectations were met.
Accordingly, the Strato made only 29 flights before being permanently retired.
Fortunately, the good people at Grob have preserved it at their airfield in Mindelheim, Germany for future generations to see and appreciate.
So if you ever encounter one of the people at Grob who made this happen, please buy them a beer as thanks for not scrapping it. ⠀
|