Even if environmental concerns are very important nowadays, it is crucial to keep on researching on performance. More efficient in terms of performance and able to work with more environmentally-friendly fuels, diesel engines seem to be a credible transition towards the hybrid or all-electric green transport solutions everyone is dreaming of.

The Reno racers guzzle vast quantities of aviation gas, a very polluting one (it is still leaded). Therefore, the Big Frog Team has decided to up them by replacing the usual Lycoming gasoline engine in the Nemesis with a French diesel engine. The excellent SMA engine burns the ordinary kerosene powering all jet aircrafts. And it’s no coincidence that this engine was designed by engineers from the Renault Formula 1 and Snecma motor racing stables! What could be more natural than to adapt it for air racing?

It’s no small challenge: no one has ever dared put a diesel engine inside an all-carbon race plane. A diesel engine vibrates much more than a gasoline one, and carbon is stiff! Nothing must be left to chance in terms of mechanical stability and vibrations control, especially for a racer that’s going to be skimming the ground at over 400 mph.

The Big Frog Team knew that the Nemesis airframe and the engine were both designed using CATIA, Dassault’s famous 3D design tool. What better way of building the SMA engine into the Nemesis airframe than by using CATIA and SIMULIA?

Working in collaboration with consultants from Dassault Systèmes, the Big Frog Team is close to achieving its objectives. Their aircraft, with its kerosene-fuelled diesel engine, will be challenging the world’s top air racers. A new challenge that is not to displease the worthy descendants of the 1909 pioneers!

F1 drivers don’t drive to the circuit in their racing cars, but this is current practice in Reno, where pilots fly to Nevada in the planes they’ll be racing. Big Frog won’t be doing this, especially as it would involve crossing the Atlantic! The problem is that the Nemesis NXT isn’t designed for the wings to be removed during transit. Undeterred, the Big Frog Team is using SIMULIA to look at ways of changing the plane’s structure safely without affecting performance. Virtual simulation is used to investigate several options so as to best design an innovative system to attach the wing to the fuselage.  The tail is also removable for easy access and maintenance of some mechanical parts.

For the Big Frog Team, which includes several members coming from the F1 world, the search for performance is an obsession. In this vein, the tail fin has been redesigned and enlarged to improve stability and decrease the landing speed. All of this is done with CATIA of course, and under the control of the FAA.