The Great Plains Type 1 Front Drive is an American

aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

series, produced by Great Plains Aviation Supply of

Bennington, Nebraska Bennington is a city in Douglas County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 1,458 at the 2010 U.S. Census. History Bennington was originally called Bunz Town, and under the latter name was founded in the 1880s when the Fremont, Elkhorn a ...

for use in

homebuilt aircraft Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...

. The series are all based upon the Volkswagen air-cooled automotive engine.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', pages 258-259. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The engine series are all four-cylinder

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

horizontally-opposed A flat engine is a Internal combustion engine#Reciprocating engines, piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct fro ...

, air-cooled,

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

automotive conversion gasoline engines, with direct-drive. They employ

magneto A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce periodic pulses of alternating current. Unlike a dynamo, a magneto does not contain a commutator to produce direct current. It is categorized as a form of alternator, ...

ignition systems and, depending on the model, produce at 3600 rpm, with a

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...

of 8.0:1. They use a geared electric starter. The series includes six models, named for their displacement: * producing for take-off * producing for take-off * producing for take-off * producing for take-off * producing for take-off * producing for take-off.

Applications

Grosso Aircraft Easy Eagle 1 The Great Plains Aircraft Easy Eagle is a single seat homebuilt biplane, powered by a Volkswagen air-cooled engine.Bayerl, Robby; Martin Berkemeier; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2011-12'', page 104. WDLA UK, Lancaster UK, 2011. I ...

Monnett Sonerai The Sonerai is a small, VW-powered homebuilt aircraft,"The Sonerai I,"
GreatPlai ...

Specifications (Type 1 Front Drive 2180)

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.greatplainsas.com/specsfd.html Great Plains aircraft engines Air-cooled aircraft piston engines 1980s aircraft piston engines

Design and development

Applications

Specifications (Type 1 Front Drive 2180)

See also

References

External links