Airline Pilot Central Forums - Interesting hangar mate

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The one I was curious about was in the last two pics in part 7 (my mistake, above). Single-engine turboprop, contra-rotating prop. N4571L.

I've never seen that before.

I'd love to see that Lear Fan resurrected and outfitted with those new, small turbojets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesNoBrakes (Post 1522875)

Heard that months ago (that it was going to be fitted to the Civil Aviation Medical Institute "stick"), although the last time I saw it was sitting in the pile in the accident boneyard. Really neat aircraft.

The article says there were only three produced - one in a Dallas museum and the other in Seattle. The interior of this one looks gutted, but the outside is nicely painted and in good shape. The inlet and exhaust openings are already blocked off as if it were sitting static at some other location. It looks like it should be parked outside some FBO in Austin :)

I first saw the Lear Fan fly when they were flight testing at RTS. After they landed, I inadvertently turned onto a taxi way between some hangars as they turned onto the same taxi way behind us and chased us all the way back to their ramp.
Their test pilot was an unassuming looking guy that I had taught weekend ground schools with named Dennis Newton. Great guy who had wonderful things to say about the plane. It's a shame it never made it into production.

RAeS Seattle Branch - Events Archive

8

Quote:

Originally Posted by UAL T38 Phlyer (Post 1522944)

The one I was curious about was in the last two pics in part 7 (my mistake, above). Single-engine turboprop, contra-rotating prop. N4571L.

I've never seen that before.

I dug this up about it.

Model: COAX
Date: 1986-1987
Specs: 335 / 340 prototype conversion
(2) Allison 250-C20S 375 shp
Engine-to-prop gear box with coaxial output shaft.
Forward and aft three bladed propellers driven in opposite directions.
Engine nacelles cleaned from wings.
In both multi and single engine climb, COAX beat 340A by
200fpm but there were some who thought the data was suspect.

There is one photo of it on thread 8 of the series too. With two turbines mounted in series it would have to be a pretty expensive airplane. This was a time when GA manufacturers were trying to get rid of low end prop models for liability reasons. Maybe the idea with this one was to make the customer pay for their own insurance policy rather than let the insurance company take away their choices with the other twins, which they did around that time. At any rate I wonder how smooth the setup ran because the second prop gets mostly dirty air.