Refitting the Mooney Mite airplane with the Ford Escort/Lynx engine (STS Research Paper)

The goal of this thesis project is to redesign the Mooney Mite M-18 Airplane by installing a Ford Escort/Lynx engine in place of the Lycoming or Continental engines previously used. The previous structural design was identified by building a balsawood model of the steel truss in the Mooney Mite. From the balsawood model, the members which needed to be replace were identified. The structural modification was made and tested using the MSC/P AL-2 stress analysis, PC-based software and Lotus 123 for generating the critical buckling loads.
The analysis showed that two additional members were needed. When analyzed, the truss was strong enough as not to yeild under the specified loads, but only a 1.25 factor of safety is present. In order to increase this value, 200ksi tensile strength steel should be used instead of the 1OOksi steel used in the analysis. This would increase the factor of safety to over 2, which is an acceptable value.
Once the structural modification was completed, a static stability analysis was performed to test if the plane with the Ford engine would be "flyable." The replacement engine moved the center of gravity farther forward increasing the static stability. However, a full stability and controll analysis must be performed before the design is "flyable."

Variant title: Technology Impact Statement: Engine Mount Design for the Mooney Mite Airplane (Technical Report)
Local Note: "Aerospace Engineering"