Light Aircraft Association

I have been searching for links or other information related to the use of BMW Motorcyle 1000R engines in a microlight or LSA. Any ideas please?

Hi I have done a bit of research into the R100 BMW engine! I have one fully converted with reversed cylinders and cam Rotax 3:1 gearbox on adaptor plate! Depends on what you want to do with it ie tractor or pusher configuration decides what you need to do! Twin plugging is a very easy and useful mod later barrels are alloy and nicasil lined early are cast iron and heavy! Starter motors come in two forms tractor like Bosch or lightweight Valeo (4lbs difference in weight) mounting them is easy as the motorcyle mount points lend themselves to aero use! Oil cooler is needed and needs to be the original bike one as the oil is at very high pressure but again the bike one is small neat and light with great mount points!
There are a few specialist suppliers who have looked at the subject and I can put you in touch with them.
Feel free to pm me and I will give you my phone number if you wish to chat about it!
John.

There is a "Mark" of X'Air that takes the BMW1000. "X'Air Ireland" has details of the engine conversion and mounting.
Lutonpilot - I hear that the BMW 1200 is much lighter, twin plugged, fuel injected and more powerful etc.

Yes I believe so although not sure about twin plugged! There is also an issue in using the standard ECU due to requiring the lambda sensor and various other pressure and temperature sensors the immobiliser which can activate in flight so ECU normally replaced with an after market one. Not a cheap option also the engineering have issues with the fuel injection as there is no failsafe mode although I may be wrong on that point as it maybe resolved. I had looked at it and then went for the simpler option.
John

Bill, I don't think the newer oil cooled engines are lighter. A typical conversion weighs about 170lbs whereas an R100 conversion is 155-ish Better power to weight ratio though, upwards of 100hp compared to 70.

If the engine management electronics for the R1200 could be resolved it would be an potential challenger for the Rotax 912 series. I believe that a new "out of the box" R1200 is in the order of £3000 whilst a good one which has done less than 50,000 miles is less than half that. Perhaps an even bigger hurdle is getting it approved by engineering. I doubt reliability would be an issue. I'd love to stick either one on the front end of a Jodel D9 for instance.

My setup with engine mounts comes in around 67Kgs or approx 148lbs no doubt that would increase but its a good starting point. I am trying to remember the German company that supplies a ready to go setup but I think they use the 1100 engine and its not light they use carbs. Senile dementia is setting in!!!!

The German company that sell BMW engines for aviation use is: http://www.takeoff-ul.de/index.html
Jeremy Harris, who used to post on this BB, knew a lot about BMW conversions: you might be able to track him down...

Are there any BMW conversions flying reliably and regularly?

I honestly don't want to be negative (really!) but I've heard and read a lot about them and their problems down the years but I can't recall ever actually seeing one flying (or maybe I need to look more closely at the microlight end of things).

Think I'd be tempted to go with a VW (for proven simplicity), put alloy barrels on it (to reduce weight) with Leburg ignition (for power, reliability, and easy starting) and use an Armstrong starter.

There are a lot of them in microlights on the continent.
What is the maximum cubic capacity allowed for VW alloy barrels then - with approval of the LAA ?

I wasn't aware there was a limit imposed on capacity for ally barrels. I believe there is at least one flying with 92mm pistons and normal (1600cc) stroke (making 1834cc) but seeing as there are bored and stroked versions (AeroVee) of nearly 2200cc I just assumed people would be using ally barrels.

I reserve the right to be wrong on this, of course, but seeing as the car VW nuts create 2200cc engines and then turbocharge (and NOS) them I'd expect the barrels can take the 3500rpm driving a wooden prop quite easily.