First my heartfelt condolences to the family of Leeward, the world war two veteran pilot who died yesterday in Reno air show accident. The cause of the aircrash is believed to be an elevertor trim tab that fell off.
My question is more about the cooling system rather than the stearing mechanism. Wiki says it had an oil cooling system similar to that found in space shuttle. The daily telegraph on their part says it had a water cooling system akin to the Space Shuttle. Could it be that it uses both? And does that not add too much weight to the plane. It is O.K for the Space shuttle to use liquid cooling for obvious reasons but for a stunt plane?? What decides the choice of a system?
May the Lord God give strength to the family of Leeward in this difficult time.

Christine.

Hi Christine,
I believe you are mistaken. Most aircraft are either air cooled or water cooled. You may be referring to the fact that they are used to cool the oil.
I may be wrong, but it seems highly unlikely since the combustion point of most oils are well below the boiling point of water.
Peace,
Ron

Thanks Ron. I am reading something about aircraft cooling from this site http://www.experimentalaircraft.info/artic...nes_cooling.php It has not answered the discordant descriptions about a Space Shuttle's coolant (water or oil?) but a shift to liquid cooling was made decades ago. Engines can be water cooled and oil cooled at the same time with air being the final heat sink. I'll assume in space heat loss will be purely by radiation (no conduction or convection in space). I am not getting ahead of myself here or am I?


Christine.