Water Walker’s NEW Congo Cargo Airboat

[Eric Kimmel]

When I sawthe word Congo it reminded me about Jamie Clonneger from homestead built a diesel powered airboat to run food to villages that had no acces to food he stayd there for a pretty long time.It had to be diesel cause av gas or car gas just wasn't easy to get where they were going.

One story I heard was all the young men and boys wee force to join militias and those left behind did not know how to hunt or farm. and one village even though there were tons of frogs they would not eat them for some reason.

That is one nice airboat being built just got sidetracked by the word congo and thought of Jamie

[mscott]

How about another peddle that operates the transom? Use throttle to get on plane, then push left peddle to lower the back. When the snap, "oh shitizzle" happens just pull your foot off the peddle and it closes. I'm sure everyone's gotten out of the throttle quickly and under stress and pressure your mind doesn't work quickly enough. Fine motor skills go to hell, so little switches and knobs will ensure a lot of boats full of water. Just a thought. Probably be easier to rig up too.
If you slam a rock or stump and tweak the bottom at the rear, is there assurance to get a tight close with that door?

[Andrew McD]

Well as Plum said, the project is moving forward. Below is the latest:


Above is the finished "split-drive" waterline transmission. Its a counter rotating, clutch controlled unit that will have the output shafts outfitted with drive sprockets. The sprockets will drive belts connected to propeller arbors as shown in the picture below. A set of these arbors is next on the list for CNC and assembly. Our engineer team did a heck of a design job on this piece! The internals and adjustment system pull away from some of the older more traditional solutions available and make for a very modern, reliable, and user friendly component to the boat. Got to give a huge thumbs up to the designers on this one!

[swamper2]

How about another peddle that operates the transom? Use throttle to get on plane, then push left peddle to lower the back. When the snap, "oh shitizzle" happens just pull your foot off the peddle and it closes. I'm sure everyone's gotten out of the throttle quickly and under stress and pressure your mind doesn't work quickly enough. Fine motor skills go to hell, so little switches and knobs will ensure a lot of boats full of water. Just a thought. Probably be easier to rig up too.
If you slam a rock or stump and tweak the bottom at the rear, is there assurance to get a tight close with that door?

maybe a bulkhead above waterline forward enough to be out of the airstream for insurance. nice looking stuff

[WaterWalker]

October 10, 2013

The “Dual Sync Waterline Drive” split rotation transmission for the Congo Cargo Airboat has been received.

It came in a well packed box a few weeks ago and we are pleased with the look of it. So far Andrew & I have not allowed Plum to “take it apart” to see what’s inside. I’ve told him to just look at the engineering drawings and have faith that the SCS Company has built it like the agreed on plans show. A tag on top says “No Oil installed, add lubricating oil before use”. And you can bet that we will do that.



We can “hand turn” the input shaft and see the two output shafts turn in inward (looking from the top) counter rotating directions which assures that we can have inward counter rotating interleaved propellers as viewed from the propeller blasts. Viewed from the prop blast side, the starboard propeller will be left hand rotation and the port propeller will be right hand rotation. There will be no torque roll and the swirls of the two propeller horizontal air columns will hold together and rise behind the boat.

There is no RPM reduction through this transmission. The two output shafts will turn at the same RPM (but counter rotating) as the engine crankshaft turns. The reduction ratio to the props of 1.6/1 will be realized by the different groove counts of the driver and driven belt sprockets at the propeller arbors. The 60” diameter propellers will spin at 3250 RPM when the engine crank is at 5200 RPM. At 3250 RPM the wide prop tips (about 9 inches wide) will have relative airspeeds of about mach .8 or about 580 MPH. There will be a total of six wide tips working hard to produce push at these speeds.



Plum pointed out to me that with smaller diameter (60 inch) twin propellers, the airfoils of the blades will remain at higher relative airspeeds further inward towards the hub than the typical single larger (78 to 84 inch diameter) propellers.

In the last few weeks, I have finished the aerodynamic design, the pitch distribution and plan forms of these turbine type propeller blade shapes in the computer. When rendered in three dimension matched sets on the screen, they look very good (to me). Plum didn’t like the yellow surface color that I first had on them for screen display but was OK with it when I changed them to bright red with green spinners. (Hub shapes). We still have to have molds cut which is a long and expensive process.

We choose to have this “world class” transmission design/build company (SCS) do all of the mechanical engineering, planning & computations and together with their broad experience in the racing and utility experience for this transmission, we stood the best chance of having a beginning successful design. We provided the general concept and example CAD models (furnished by Andrew) of the general size, form and purpose to the SCS Company. The President of SCS, Craig Sage, took a personal interest in a project being different from his typical racing, tractor pulls and other utility projects. He personally saw the project through to manufacture. So, we now have in hand, the “first off” gearbox. Craig Sage tells us that it will perform as well as the anticipated 100th off gearbox, as the gears, bearings, shafts, seals and casings are of their standard production models and types.

The most natural way to attach this gear box to the engine block is with a well proven racing type aftermarket bell housing so we will attach it that way. This gives us the space for the most natural way to attach the engine crank to the transmission with an “off the shelf” flywheel, pressure plate and clutch disc. So we will include a hydraulically activated throw out bearing and pressure plate as the standard method. The flywheel will give us a smooth idling engine when the clutch is dis-engaged and the props are not turning.

The engine & transmission will be center line mounted in the boat at a height that sets the very bottom of the oil pan at 8 inches above the tops of the 2” aluminum “T” rails on the bottom of the hull. 8 inches is a good height to be able to place a catch pan under the engine for oil changes and servicing.

We are now in discussions with a local airboat craftsman, welder & fabricator who will work at our location to mount the engine, transmission and build the arbor stands, twin cage and seat works. We are so far planning to do them in stainless steel tubing & stick rods (wire). The top of the cages will only be about 6 feet above the boat bottom, so we can build it in the garage where the hull currently is as shown in the following pictures.

The design & plans for the twin propeller arbors are complete and have just this week been sent out to CNC machine shops for construction quotes. When we have them in hand, the final construction of the Congo Cargo Airboat will begin in earnest.

An additional note; we have on hand a previous triple set of aluminum rudders that were used earlier on the Water Walker Concept Boat. They seem to be a just right size and shape for this application. We got a little lucky on that one.

[Prototype]

Thanks for the update guy's,

David------------- You do know all those clutch parts are suppose to go inside the scattershield before you bolt it up right? LOL

[Andrew McD]

Thanks for the update guy's,

David------------- You do know all those clutch parts are suppose to go inside the scattershield before you bolt it up right? LOL

LMAO Prototype, nothing gets past you!

[Prototype]

Thanks for the update guy's,

David------------- You do know all those clutch parts are suppose to go inside the scattershield before you bolt it up right? LOL

LMAO Prototype, nothing gets past you!

Sorry Andrew I couldn't resist

This is probably the hottest tech in testing thing I have seen in awhile that actually gets updated. Ton of money going into it and some really good ideas! If I have to post seriously, does the belt drive have a mount yet or is it going to float to the hull and be hard mounted just to the block? I know that hull has got some serious strength to it but if the belts float just a hair it could be plum cocktail.

[plumcrazy]

plum keeps asking the same questions

[mascara]

Hi,

Is there any time line for the total completion of the Congo cargo boat?.......

[chuckitt@earthlink.net]

The way I see it:
Concepts are funded by profits made from selling products. To see this concept completed, order a new high quality WaterWalker Prop when you need one. You can't beat the thrust these blades produce and the service is second to none.

UNLESS David has a customer that is funding this project.

Chuck

[mascara]

The way I see it:
Concepts are funded by profits made from selling products. To see this concept completed, order a new high quality WaterWalker Prop when you need one. You can't beat the thrust these blades produce and the service is second to none.

UNLESS David has a customer that is funding this project.

Chuck

That's as logical a reason as I can understand, but seed funding is as hard to get nowadays , unless you get a kickstarter kick to it........
but I think there should be a timeline to work on too.

Just trying to kill as many birds as I can , in planning my visit to florida, from the other side of the world + a 24 hours plane ride, ....transits included......

Only problem is there is so much "new inventions" that happens everyday that makes it like chasing a DODO bird.....

Thanks for the info.

[Prototype]

plum keeps asking the same questions

I have a few spare lanyards and one wicked ass pot hole lime rock road to do the initial while it's strapped to the trailer, but I'm sure you guys thought of that, LOL. One thought I had and andrew probably already has it figured out is the tensioners. One mounted to the drive and one mounted to the prop block. All four could be interchangable if your going to push for production when it's successful!


Chuck,

I hear ya but I did ask awhile ago if ww was going to enter the "skinny blade market"? Shoot, I'm still waiting to be a customer for the in flight adjustable market if I can afford it for my bigger rigs.
Mr W has got to compete in some form or fashion, but a whole rig works for me if that's his true goal?

[Bruno Senff]

Congratulations on the project, the most impressive I have ever seen airboat, I'm interested in buying the design of the aluminum parts to build a garage of my house, so I wonder if there is interest in selling desenhor parts of the hull. I will use another type of engine and propeller.
Please contact me at my email bruno@genuinegarage.com.br.
Thank you very much.

[Whitebear]

Welcome to Southern Airboat Bruno. Its for everyone here, so jump right in and enjoy the discussions. We are glad to have you here from Brazil.

[90chevy396]

This is an amazing show of craftsmanship and ingenuity. I would love to see the assembled boat around soon

[Bruno Senff]

I'm drawing a Airboat and would like to know the dimensions for the hull of a 8/1/2X 23 Feet
All sizes

[plumcrazy]

just waiting on a few parts that have never existed before and she will be on a pond near you..... I am very excited about this boat and cant wait to run it . Mr Wine Andrew and I have work on this project for 2 years this month from conception to this picture takin yesterday at the shop not to mention moving the Water Walker props to fl. from colorado ..lady plum says she might just do the shake down

[Prototype]

Plum,
Good luck! The only advice I can give is Clutch systems don't coast as good but with that hull I really don't think a nose dive is possible.

[mscott]

Are you doing cage before cowling or are you going to run the cowling over the cage? I know with prototypes you may just want to see if it moves forward. Looking great so far!

[Ronaldregan]

Would like to know more about air assist bottom, glad Alumitech built the hull great people over there

[plumcrazy]

this boat will have a cage only .... more of a work type platform

[90chevy396]

amazing concept do you have an eta for the remaining parts or still design phase of parts needed?

[Joe863]

Pretty sure I saw the boat going down the road on our way to Mack yesterday

[Bruno Senff]

I'm drawing but I need help with some measurements of the dimensions!