First time I’ve seen anyone LS swap a freaking airplane. Shine on you crazy diamond!

So, when you're finished this is basically going to be a Corvette with a really awesome aero package. Cool!

I wish I knew this Kat. Seems like I could learn alot just being around. Hands down the finest kit job Ive ever seen!

Nice work Len !!!! Sounds great on all 8. The cam has a nice rumble to it as well. Thanks for sharing a fellow VELO builder so we can all to see and enjoy.

I never cease to marvel at the craftsmanship that goes into these aircraft and the pure likability of the craftsmen that produce that work. His choice of the LS3 in the Velocity is, IMHO, the best possible pairing of elements in the home-built category. This should be an awesome aircraft to fly and in which to go from Point A to Point B for all on board.

Excellent update. Would really like to see this aircraft to completion and flying. Keep up the great work Len.

Fun video, awesome aircraft. I love the community that exists between builders, may have to give it a try someday! Thanks for bringing us into your hangar.

Two very likable guys ... really enjoyed this video and am happy it came up in my recommended list 👍

Awesome, and well thought out build, love the idea of 4 cylinder backup with two ECUs'. Can't wait to see you put it to the test.

Wow! What a plane. Thank you for sharing. Keep us posted on the progress.

These guys have a runway in their backyard? Life Goals

The fit and finish and panel gap lines are stunning.

430 hp wow. I like the MT prop so you can slow her down to land. So rad. It's gonna climb like a scalded cat. Talk about pride of ownership.

It's not a Corvette engine... It's an LS3, the motor that they ALSO put in Corvette.. It's in allot of other GM's. The LS family is the greatest V8 gas motor the world has ever known... Now... and forever. Excellent choice.

Lynn this is an amazing build I love it can't wait to see it in flight

A work of art. Beautiful job. Nice attention to the small details.

'merica, where LS swapping knows no boundaries.

Wow, just wow....engine sounds awesome

BEAUTIFUL build! Oh, love the floral seat cushions too!

That is absolutely beautiful. Thank God for smart and adventurous souls!

Sweet, I use to hang out at volicity back in the late 80"s. Love the plane.

Okay this may put you to sleep..... Hi this is a comment on Len Baxter's beautiful Velocity with all kinds of innovative things such as exhaust augmentation cooling and on and on. Truly one of the finest projects I have seen. And importantly I do not want to bad mouth what looks like a great gear box "for boats" from Ballistic as possibly used on Len's plane.. I have some concerns to share on using this reduction in an aircraft. I am not an engineer but have spent a few years researching and building reduction drives for a 550HP 411 cu in. SBC Pitts Special project. In the course of this I bought a HyVo chain PSRU which was junk from an engineering perspective. Then I built a HyVo drive based on specs from the chain company's engineering support guys (did not use the airplane word, otherwise dial tone only). I also met Jack Kane from EPI who I have used over the years for advice, also Martin Hallman from Aircraft Designs (no longer with us unfortunately) and other knowledgeable resources. Anyway my HyVo unit came out too heavy and I am in the process of building a dual carbon fiber belt drive which is coming along well and NO I have no intention of selling any of this stuff. Here is my reason for writing. There are numerous loads on the gear reduction unit and among them , thrust induced (pulling on the shaft and bearings), G loading at the prop, torsional loads from delivering the power to the prop and a BIG one , gyroscopic loads due to yaw (side load) induced by pitch changes. I do not think that this reduction was designed to carry the high gyroscopic loads (nose up or down transitions) common to aircraft especially when flying at high speed through turbulence, as an example. Or in the Pitts yarding the stick back for an aerobatic maneuver. To be specific, on my project with a 30lb 90 inch 2 blade wood prop, turning 2750 rpm and a pitch change of 2 radians per second (FAA guideline), puts a side load on the shaft and bearings of nearly 4000 lbs. These numbers come from an engineer and not pulled out of you know where. So I would worry a lot about this especially with a prop that by necessity is mounted pretty far out on the shaft from the bearing. You can find all kinds of excellent information on this and many other important gear reduction and engine conversions on Jack's website, I recommend it highly. Jack by the way sells a couple of different drives and he has a LOT of experience designing and fabricating reduction units for aircraft. Here are the numbers I used to model the shaft and bearings in my FEA program for my Pitts: 2000 lbs thrust (we hope, airplane weighs about 1600lbs, should be fun ), in this case 2000 lbs per belt pull - 4000 total, G load on prop 300lbs at 10 g's, Gyroscopic load of 4000 lbs (trying to rip stuff apart). As a result the bearings I am running are spherical rollers and they are fairly large. They are sized to handle the above loads with a life of approx 500 hours per manufacturer specs for loading, rpm, type of lubrication, etc). Another issue is torsional resonance harmonics which can rip stuff apart and is induced by the firing pulses in a piston engine interacting with the mass of the propeller and other assorted conditions. This is way complicated but in a nutshell the engine, gear reduction and prop combination are critical to avoiding hitting a harmonic that causes catastrophic failure. So the design needs to take these harmonics into account. To give an example on a test stand with SBC engine, an unproven but beautiful 3 geared drive and a constant speed propeller, we watched the gear box explode from torsional resonance at a very low power setting while cycling the prop. This drive was not replicated. The Ballastic drive probably solved for this ( for specific engine / propeller combinations) with the elastimar mounts that connect to the flywheel to the gearbox. However the resonance problem could occur if one departed too far away in terms of propeller, gear box and or engine characteristics. I note on the Ballistic website that they request certain information in building up drives and may have this consideration well in hand.. One last observation, it appears that the Ballistic propeller drive shaft may have a grove for a key way to locate the propeller hub. I don't think this is common practice in aircraft any longer due to the tendency for the shaft to fail based on the stress risers that sharp corners create. Okay, just my observations and opinions and again I do not mean to be critical of the Ballistic drive for its intended operations especially when it is run in a configuration that was approved by them. If COVID-19 was not keeping me at home and on edge this would have been far shorter..Best Jerry Davis

Woke up one morning with LS on his mind. Went to sleep with the LS on the aircraft! SAVAGE!

Pegging my envy meter, big time! Sweet aircraft. Hope he gets his maiden voyage soon.

What a great project. Sound is off the charts. Congrats

Ohhhhhhhh…….. The sound………. Nothing beats V8 rumble.

It's a Vet-locity. Very cool airplane. Kinda like an inline twin

Currently developing a stand alone EDFJ and a EDFJ/DIESEL HYBRID. The Rutan Long E-Z or the Cozy/side by side seating/based on the Rutan Verieze/Long E-Z design, as well as a Velocity 4-place, will be used as test bed aircraft. Tested will be a single and twin power-plant configuration (all electric twin and diesel/Jet-A hybrid on the Velocity aircraft). Goal: to fly faster, farther in a more quiet and comfortable manner than any other electric airplane using current battery technology. Thank you for posting this video.

A thing of great beauty, Len. Well done.

thats amazing! my buddy has this motor in his car and its insane. Cant wait to see it fly! keep on keeping on!

That is a very good looking airplane. Those lines are awesome. Great project!

You guys are always going to be the coolest people in the room.

Very cool project! Good to see another home built airplane project close to home here in Michigan.

It is a very clean looking aircraft, really nice to look at. Excellent work!

I don't even know this guy and I'm exciting for him and his project!

this plane is going to haul -ass and climb like a homesick angel, what a cool bird.

Len, I love the videos. It makes me wish I never sold mine. I built N787SB with an IO-540 and MT prop. The vet engine is pretty cool. I also noticed we both have a C-182. All the best. Steve

I love LS engines.. i use then in my daily drivers, race cars, toys, even had a LS boat.. at altitude, I want an engine engineered to be reliable in the air at near full throttle for hours on end.. I've seen automotive conversions fail time and time again.. gear reductions, ecu, electronic ignitions, liquid cooling.. all the extra moving parts.. the pros don't outweigh the cons for me, not yet anyway.. i hope it's good and reliable for you Len.. its certainly going to be nice.. i'd love to see the LS turn out to be reliable in the air..

Hell Yah!!! I got a 57 Chevy just waiting for that power plant!! LOVE THE SOUND!!!!! Hope this works for your airplane!!!

Wow, that's awesome - sounds great, can't wait to see it fly in the future. Be Great.

Thanks for sharing this build video. Amazing what can be done in aircraft building today.

That plane is looking real sweet. Lots of really cool features. Number one being the LS3 engine.

Excellent build quality, fit and finish. Love everything about it so far except the panel, but that comes down to personal preference and $$$.

Hey Len, nice build! However, as the builder of the only Velocity XL-RG with custom equal-length headers (N36LV) I think, in your position, I would perhaps sacrifice a bit of exhaust augmentation efficiency. I would cut off the lower part of your augmenters sticking out the engine cowl to match the lower profile of said cowling. This would look much more sleek and would make for much less turbulent air smacking into the forward edges of your prop, thereby increasing its efficiency.

0.58 I am amazed that this actually enhances performance because WW2 night bombers used a device called "flame damper" to prevent being seen by night fighters, it looked smilar but in fact REDUCED the aircraft's speed

Corvette engine transportation without speeding ticket worries. 😁

Oh my, that sound takes me to a happy place.

While there are more than plenty of knowledgeable LS programmers out there ! Chuck Mallet out of Charlotte, NC , is absolutely one of the best that I can personally attest to Sir ! Especially when it comes to those tricky little hard to identify programming challenges ! If you are interested, I will do what I can to stir up his information for you ! Awesome project Sir ! Excited to see follow-up footage, and finally, that magic moment of crank-up, test run-ups, and final test flights before you live that ultimate dream of pure flight when all of your design concepts come together ! Happy Flying Sir !

Wow ! The whole thing is beautiful my favorite part is the dash...

GOD bless You for applying a lifelong avocation to learning and applying that knowledge. May You be blessed with sufficient years to observe Your dreams come true ...

That’s too cool ! Appreciate you sharing.

Very cool build! Hope to see it in the air soon.

Those SDS computers are pretty tough. I had on in a Bronco that got filled with mud several times. Hosed it out and kept going. Also, nice Baja designs light in the nose.

Its gonna be AWESOME!!!!

Wonderful never watched a video about this topic, I’m hooked

Can't wait to see it fly. Very, very cool.

This should be a very cool airplane, I hope we get to see it fly!

All I can say is WOW great work :)

Great looking plane ..can't wait to see it fly.looks fast

Always thought a LS would be solid for a plane. Nice video thanks for sharing!

had SDS on an old Jeep.....loved it for that dash tuner. Looking good.

Just bumping these questions back up to the top, it would be great if these topics can be considered by Len to go through in the next video: Technical questions on Len Baxter's LS3 Velocity, would like to know more detail to see how this type of install could be applied to other homebuilt aircraft: 1) Can Len go through the engine mount design, specifically what are the engine mount points on the firewall side of the engine, and why rubber isolation mounts were chosen over hard mounting 2) Can Len go through the cooling system design, what size is the radiator, how was the scoop and ducting to the radiator designed and built, how were the sizes of the radiator and scoop determined, is an electric fan planned or is the prop suction and exhaust exit suction creating enough flow, how well is the cooling system performing on the ground, has there been any long duration runs with the cowling in place and the prop on to test the cooling system 3) Can Len go through the HVAC system, what brand of unit is installed in the cabin and what is used to control the cabin unit, is air conditioning installed and plumbed into the cabin 4) Prop information - how did Len determine the prop sizing and can we get more information about the electric constant speed actuator slip ring and controller, if there is a failure in the electric actuator or the slip ring what happens to the prop pitch for various failure modes and is there any redundant channels on the slip ring or the actuator 5) Weight estimates - is there any additional detail that can be provided on weight breakdown (engine with accessories, engine mount, cabin HVAC & lines, prop & CS actuator), has the plane been weighed all together with wings and how does weight and balance compare to a velocity with a traditional Lycoming or Continental 300HP engine installation. 6) What was learned about the cause of the prop balance issue and how is it being resolved? I know this is a lot of questions, I just find this engine conversion very interesting and want to learn as much as possible about it. I would like to do a build similar to this and it seems Len has some great thoughts here that are very valuable to learn from. Thanks!

I am excited to see the next video of this plane flying.

Wow. This is the airplane that I have been dreaming about for forty years.

Awesome build! Regarding your prop vibration issue, if you’ve ruled out prop balance, your prop vibration problem is likely a harmonics issue related to the firing order of the LS. First, I’d make sure your engine is running as efficiently as possible, and that your valve depth/timing/duration is ideal at all RPMS in which you plan to operate. Low and idle RPM chugging and misfiring is a sign the tune is severely sub-optimal(particularly when regarding engine balance and harmonics) at those RPMs. The variable valve timing and improved ECU on GM’s newer “LT” engine series ought to resolve the issue, but may be out of budget. Harmonics issues also become much less significant or go away entirely with a slush box, but that may or may not be feasible for your particular application either. A change in gearing or gear type (not straight-cut)or a drive belt with a little give, may also reduce or even eliminate the prop vibration issue. Good luck, looking forward to seeing more!

Wow! Great work all around!

As it should be.... that is an awesome combination of power to airplane..........*( The guy building the "Raptor" one of a kind should consult with both of you , he might be flying his invention instead of just running up and down the runway wondering IF it will fly ) I'll bet this Velocity will blow away 'bout anything .... a flying video of this plane is a must............. and the seat covers ? ( I use Carhart "T" shirts in my new SD F250 ). THANK YOU for the Video .

You're building what I have wanted to build for years but health and income made it just a dream

Can't wait to see it fly. The ls family of engines are great. I put one in a fiero back 98 very dependable powerplant. Unique idea for the ecm. Is he using two reluctors too

love it! subscribed! cheers from italy!

When it flies over everyone will look for a Vet.

Love the sound of that motor. Bad Ass Plane. Just Beautiful‼️👍👍✈️. Vinny🇺🇸

Man! That thing sounds NICE!!!

I imagine that in the future you will be adding a low boost turbocharger, just to maintain your power at higher altitudes. As long as you keep the boost low (less than 5 pounds) you won't need an intercooler, it's pretty cool up there anyway. I love the build, good luck to you.

Now That's a sweet Ride !!😎👍👍👍👍

love the engine cylinder options

Very nice! I love the professionalism and attention to detail! Only thing I personally do not like is a wood, composite wrapped MT prop.

Damn. You really can put an LS in anything.

Hopefully is getting finished up .. looking forward to updates .. cheers :)

this is like the moose! Cant wait to see what turns out!

I am looking forward to both of your first flights.

Super nice. Well done.

Sounds soo good!

That's freaking awesome .

The LS3 cylinder deactivation is called DOD, the computer tells a solenoid to cut oil pressure to the designated lifters. The problem is is hot rod and performance engine builders have found is that over time the lifter will completely collapse which I’m imagining in an aircraft could be a potentially fatal problem.

Incredible engine! Dream plane!

Modern aluminum v8's are awesome. I'm glad to see one in a velocity. Are you planning on adding or experimenting with some internal ducting especially between the radiator and the entrance to the augmentation tube? You seem like you're awfully close to merideth effect + jet pump combination that I find incredibly exciting.

Super cool project, PLEASE give us an update! BTW, the gearbox on this thing has me very concerned. Possibly the CG as well, but I don't know what the factory recommended engines weigh.

Practicing with the 4cyl mode in a controlled condition might be good to do.. This plane project is awesome

Definitely have the best sounding plane at the airport

Love the RGB, some heavy duty case and gears im sure....

Utterly amazing

She's beautiful!

Beautiful beast of a powerplant 👌👀👍

Beautiful beast!

Great plane, just love it

love that sound

Wow, it sounds just like a Corvette!!!! :o)

Cant wait to see this fly

Thats sound sooooo cool !