Le Rhône 9C, a typical rotary of WWI. The copper pipes carry the fuel-air mixture from the crankcase to the cylinder heads.

The rotary engine was an early type of internal combustion aircraft engine, used mostly in the years shortly before and during World War I. It is also used in a few motorcycles and cars. Rotary engine can have several meanings: For the rotating piston engine used in some World War I aircraft, see rotary engine. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (850x863, 115 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Gnome et Rhône ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (850x863, 115 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Gnome et Rhône ... An internal combustion engine is an engine that is powered by the expansion of hot combustion products of fuel directly acting within an engine. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... A variety of parked motorcycles A motorcycle or motorbike is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle powered by an engine. ... Karl Benzs Velo model (1894) - entered into the first automobile race An automobile or motor (usually shortened to just car) is a wheeled passenger vehicle that carries its own motor. ...

In concept, a rotary engine is simple. It is a standard Otto cycle engine, but instead of having an orthodox fixed cylinder block with rotating crankshaft as with the Radial engine, the crankshaft remains stationary and the entire cylinder block rotates around it. In the most common form, the crankshaft was fixed solidly to an aircraft frame, and the propeller simply bolted onto the front of the cylinder block. The four-stroke cycle of an internal combustion engine is the cycle most commonly used for automotive and industrial purposes today ( cars and trucks, generators, etc). ... The cylinder block of a Ford I4 DOHC engine The cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting (or sometimes an assembly of modules) containing cylindrically bored holes for the pistons of a multi-cylinder reciprocating internal combustion engine, or for a similarly constructed device such as a pump. ... Crankshaft (red), pistons (gray) in their cylinders (blue), and flywheel (black) Continental engine marine crankshafts, 1942 Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ... The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The effect of rotating such a large mass was an inherent large gyroscopic flywheel effect, smoothing out the power and reducing vibration. Vibration had been such a serious problem on other conventional piston engine designs that heavy flywheels had to be added. Because the cylinders themselves functioned as a flywheel, rotary piston engines typically had a power-to-weight ratio advantage over more conventional engines. A gyroscope For other uses, see Gyroscope (disambiguation). ... Spoked flywheel Flywheel from stationary engine. ... Power-to-weight ratio is a measure commonly used when comparing various vehicles (or engines), including automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft. ...

Most rotary engines were arranged with the cylinders pointed outwards from a single crankshaft, in the same general form as a radial, but there were also rotary boxer engines and even one-cylinder rotaries. The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... Diagram of the opposing pistons in a boxer engine A flat engine or boxer engine or horizontally opposed engine is a type of engine where the pistons lie horizontally opposed, with pairs of cylinders on the left and the right, as opposed to most modern engines where all pistons are... A single cylinder engine, colloquially known as a one-lunger, is an engine configuration consisting of just one cylinder. ...

History in aircraft

Lawrence Hargrave first developed a rotary engine in 1889 using compressed air, intending for it to be used in powered flight. Weight of materials and lack of quality machining prevented it becoming an effective power unit.^[1] Hargrave (seated) and Swain demonstrate the manlift kites (labelled A, B, D, & E), sling seat and spring balance in the parkland behind Stanwell Park beach, November 1894 Lawrence Hargrave (29 January 1850 – 6 July 1915) was an engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer. ...

The first effective rotaries were built by Stephen Balzer, who was interested in the design for two main reasons:

• In order to generate 100 hp (75 kW) at the low rpm at which the engines of the day ran, the pulsation resulting from each combustion stroke was quite large. In order to damp out these pulses, engines needed to mount a large flywheel, which added weight. In the rotary design the engine itself doubled as its flywheel, thus rotaries were lighter than similarly sized engines of regular design.
• The cylinders had good airflow over them even when sitting still, which was an important concern given the alloys they had to work with at the time. Balzer's early engines did not even use cooling-fins, a feature of every other air-cooled design, and one that is complex and expensive to manufacture.

Balzer's first designs were ready for use in 1899, at which time they were the most advanced in the world. Other aircraft engines would not catch up in performance for a decade. He then became involved in Langley's Aerodrome attempts, which bankrupted him while he tried to make much larger versions. For other uses, see Revolutions per minute (disambiguation). ... See also CPU cooling Watercooling Heat pipe cooling Peltier cooling External links http://www. ... Samuel Pierpont Langley. ...

The next major advance in the design was Louis and Laurent Seguin's Gnôme series from 1908. This design was developed from a German single-cylinder stationary engine intended for light industrial use, the Gnom, which the brothers were producing under license from Motorenfabrik Oberursel. They essentially took several Gnom cylinders and combined them on a common shaft to produce a seven-cylinder rotary, the Gnôme Omega No.1 still exists and is in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. A production version of the Omega then soon reached the aviation market, still as a 7-cylinder 50 hp (37 kW), which soon reached 80 hp (60 kW), and eventually 110 hp (80 kW). The engine was at this later 80 hp (60 kW) standard when World War I started, as the Gnôme Lambda, and the Gnome quickly found itself being used in a large number of aircraft designs. It was so good that it was licensed by a number of companies, including the German Oberursel firm who designed the original Gnom engine. Oberursel was later purchased by Fokker, whose Gnôme Lambda copy was known as the Oberursel U.I. It was not at all uncommon for French Gnômes to meet German versions in combat. Le Rhône 9C Gnome et Rhône was a major French aircraft engine manufacturer. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Motorenfabrik Oberursel A.G. was a German manufacturer of automobile, locomotive and aircraft engines. ... National Air and Space Museum exterior The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, and is the most popular of the Smithsonian museums. ... Fokkers first airplane, the Spin (1910) Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer named after its founder, Anthony Fokker. ...

The Gnôme (and its copies) had a number of features that made it unique, even among the rotaries. Notably, the fuel was mixed and sprayed into the center of the engine through a hollow crankshaft, and then into the cylinders through the piston itself, a single valve on the top of the piston let the mixture in when opened. The valves were counter balanced so that only a small force was needed to open them, and releasing the force closed the valve without any springs. The center of the engine is normally where the oil would be, and the fuel would wash it away. To fix this, the oil was mixed in liberal quantities with the fuel, and the engine spewed smoke due to burning oil. Castor oil was the lubricant of choice, its gum-forming tendency being irrelevant in a total-loss lubrication system. An unfortunate side-effect was that World War I pilots inhaled and swallowed a considerable amount of the oil during flight, leading to persistent diarrhoea. Finally, the Gnôme had no throttle or carburetor. Since the fuel was being sprayed into the spinning engine, the motion alone was enough to mix the fuel fairly well. Of course with no throttle, the engine was either on or off, so something as simple as reducing power for landing required the pilot to cut the ignition. "Blipping" the engine on and off gave the characteristic sputtering sound as though the engine was nearly stalling, though it did not stall as quickly as conventional engines due to its great rotational inertia. Castor oil is a vegetable oil obtained from the castor bean (technically castor seed as the castor plant, Ricinus communis, is not a member of the bean family). ... Diarrhoea is the correct way to spell the word Diarrhoea. ... In an engine, the throttle is the mechanism by which the engines power is increased or decreased. ... Bendix-Technico (Stromberg) 1-barrel downdraft carburetor model BXUV-3, with nomenclature The carburetor, carburettor, or carburetter (see spelling differences), also called carb (in North America) or carbie (chiefly in Australia) for short, is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. ...

Throughout the early period of the war, the power-to-weight ratio of the rotaries remained ahead of that of their competition. They were used almost universally in fighter aircraft, while traditional water cooled designs were used on larger aircraft. The engines had a number of disadvantages, notably very poor fuel consumption, partially because the engine was always "full throttle", and also because the valve timing was often less than ideal. The rotating mass of the engine also made it, in effect, a large gyroscope, which resulted in tricky handling. The Sopwith Camel, for example, was known to turn very nimbly to the right, but rather sluggishly to the left. Nevertheless, rotaries maintained their edge through a series of small upgrades, and many newer designs continued to use them. Power-to-weight ratio is a measure commonly used when comparing various vehicles (or engines), including automobiles, motorcycles and aircraft. ... A gyroscope For other uses, see Gyroscope (disambiguation). ... The Sopwith Camel Scout was a British World War I single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability. ...

A few of the nine cylinder rotaries managed to accomplish a partially throttleable functionality by switching off either three or six cylinders (or other numbers of them), instead of all nine of them, when the "coupe switch" was depressed to cut the spark. It is believed that both German and Allied WW I rotaries had this ability, as some surviving documentation regarding the Fokker Eindecker shows a rotary selector switch to cut out a selected number of cylinders on its rotary engine. The Gnôme Monosoupape series of engines is known to have this sort of switching available to it, and has been demonstrated long after WW I by a 160 hp Monosoupape powered reproduction Sopwith Camel at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome while in flight in the 1990s. The Fokker Eindecker was a German First World War monoplane single-seat fighter aircraft designed by Dutch engineer Anthony Fokker. ... This article or section should be merged with Rotary piston engine. ... The Sopwith Camel Scout was a British World War I single-seat fighter aircraft that was famous for its maneuverability. ... The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is a living museum of World War I aircraft and antique automobiles. ...

As the war progressed, aircraft designers demanded ever-increasing amounts of power. Inline engines were able to meet this demand by improving their RPM, as more "bangs per minute" meant more power delivered. Improvements in valve timing, ignition systems and lighter materials made these higher RPM possible, and by the end of the war the average engine had increased from 1,200 RPM to 2,000. However the rotary was not able to use the same "trick," due to the drag of the cylinders through the air as they spun. For instance, if an early-war model of 1,200 RPM increased to only 1,400, the drag on the cylinders increased 36%, as air drag increases with the square of velocity. At lower speeds the drag could simply be ignored, but as speeds increased the rotary was putting more and more power into spinning the engine, and less into spinning the propeller.

One clever attempt to rescue the design was made by Siemens AG. The crankcase and cylinders spun counterclockwise at 900 RPM while the crankshaft spun clockwise at the same speed. This was achieved by the use of bevel gearing at the rear of the crankcase, resulting in the Siemens-Halske Sh.III, running at 1800 RPM with little net torque. It was also apparently the only rotary engine to use a regular style of throttleable carburetor, just as in an in-line engine. Used on the Siemens-Schuckert D.IV fighter, the new engine created what is considered by many to be the best aircraft of the war. Siemens AG (ISIN: DE0007236101, FWB: SIE, NYSE: SI) is one of the worlds largest companies and Europes largest engineering firm. ... The Siemens-Halske Sh. ... The Siemens-Schuckert D.IV was a late-World War I fighter aircraft from Siemens-Schuckert (SSW). ...

One new rotary powered aircraft, Fokker's own D.VIII, was designed solely to provide some use for their Oberursel factory's backlog of now-useless Ur.II 110 hp engines, themselves clones of the Le Rhône 9J rotary. When the war ended, the rotary disappeared almost instantly, with WWI engines being used for training for a short time until their poor fuel economy drove the users to newer engines. The Fokker E.V was a parasol-monoplane fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz and built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. ... Le Rhône 9J, general view. ... Fuel efficiency, sometimes also referred to as fuel economy and commonly gas mileage in the United States, is a numeric measure often used to describe the amount of fuel consumed with regard to the distance travelled in a transportation vehicle, such as an automobile. ...

Use in cars and motorcycles

Although the rotary engines were mostly used in aircraft, there were also a few cars and motorcycles with rotary engines. The most famous motorcycle (probably because of winning many races) is the Megola motorcycle with a radial rotary engine inside the front wheel. Another motorcycle with a radial rotary engine was the Redrup Radial, which had a rotating 3 cylinder engine in its frame. The Megola was a German motorcycle produced between 1921 and 1925 in Munich. ...

In 1904, the Barry engine was built in Wales, a rotating 2 cylinder boxer engine inside a motorcycle frame, weighing 6.5 kg. In the 1940s Cyril Pullin developed the Powerwheel, a wheel with rotating one-cylinder engine, clutch and drum brake inside the hub but it never went into serial production. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... Diagram of the opposing pistons in a boxer engine A flat engine or boxer engine or horizontally opposed engine is a type of engine where the pistons lie horizontally opposed, with pairs of cylinders on the left and the right, as opposed to most modern engines where all pistons are... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Cyril George Pullin (born 1893) was a British inventor, engineer and motorcycle race driver born in London. ... A single cylinder engine, colloquially known as a one-lunger, is an engine configuration consisting of just one cylinder. ... For other uses, see Clutch (disambiguation). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Vehicle brake. ...

Cars with rotary engines were built (among others) by American companies Adams-Farwell, Bailey, Balzer and Intrepid. Adams-Farwell was a local American automobile manufacturer from Dubuque, Iowa, founded by Herbert and Eugene Adams and Fay Oliver Farwell at the end of the 19th century. ... Look up Intrepid in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Other rotary engines

Besides the configuration described in this article with cylinders moving around a fixed crankshaft, several other very different engine designs can also be described as rotary engines. The most notable pistonless rotary engine, the Wankel rotary engine has also been used in cars (notably by NSU in the Ro80 and by Mazda in cars such as the RX-7 and RX-8), as well as in some experimental aviation applications. A pistonless rotary engine is an internal combustion engine that does not use pistons in the way a reciprocating engine does, but instead uses one or more rotors, sometimes called rotary pistons. ... Wankel Engine in Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany The Wankel rotary engine is a type of internal combustion engine, invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, which uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... NSU Ro 80 The NSU Ro 80 was a technologically advanced large sedan-type automobile produced by the German firm of NSU from 1967 until 1977. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Mazda RX-7 (also called the Savanna and Efini RX-7) is a Mazda sports car first built in 1978. ... The Mazda RX-8 is a car manufactured by Mazda Motor Corporation; which first appeared in North America at the North American International Auto Show (2001). ...

Difference between rotary and radial engines

There has been some confusion when comparing Rotary engines and Radial engines. When looked at from the outside, both Rotary and Radial engines look strikingly similar. Radial engine of a biplane. ...

The difference between these two engines is that Radial engines have pistons that move in a reciprocating fashion that cause the crankshaft to rotate. In rotary engines however, the crankshaft does not rotate. Instead, the cylinders that accommodate the reciprocating pistons will rotate around the crankshaft.

In aviation, planes that use Radial engines have their propellers connected in one way or another to the crankshaft while the cylinders and crankcase are mounted on the airframe. Planes that use Rotary engines however, have their propellers connected to the cylinders and crankcase while the "crankshaft" is mounted onto the airframe.

An external difference is that radial engine cylinders are usually finned for cooling, whereas rotary engine cylinders are often not finned, as the cooling is sufficient without the extra expense and complexity of construction.

Notes and references

See also

• Petrol engine
• Monosoupape engine
• Manly-Balzer_engine
• Turbine

Gasoline (or petrol) engine is a type of internal combustion engine which is often used for automobiles, aircraft, small mobile vehicles such as lawnmowers or motorcycles, and outboard motors for boats. ... This article or section should be merged with Rotary piston engine. ... A Siemens steam turbine with the case opened. ... Engine configuration is an engineering term for the layout of the major components of an internal combustion engine. ... Usually found in 4 and 6 cylinder configurations, the straight engine (often designed as inline engine) is an internal-combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row, with no or only minimal offset. ... A single cylinder engine, colloquially known as a one-lunger, is an engine configuration consisting of just one cylinder. ... A straight-two engine is a two cylinder piston engine that has its cylinders arranged in a single row. ... A Straight-3 is an internal combustion engine with three cylinders arranged in a straight line side by side. ... The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. ... The Volvo B5252S is an example of a straight-5 engine. ... The straight-6 (also inline 6, I-6, or I6) is an internal combustion engine with six cylinders aligned in a single row. ... 1933 Bugatti DOHC straight-8 in a Type 59 Grand Prix racer 1940s Oldsmobile Straight-8 engine A Straight-8 is a straight engine with eight cylinders. ... A straight-9 engine is a straight engine with nine cylinders. ... A Straight-10 engine is a straight engine with ten cylinders. ... A Straight-12 engine is a Straight engine with twelve cylinders. ... A straight-14 engine is a straight engine with fourteen cylinders. ... The Boxer engine, first patented by German engineer Karl Benz A flat engine is an internal combustion engine with pistons that are all relatively horizontal. ... BMW motorcycle powered by a flat-twin engine A flat-twin is a two cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a flat configuration. ... A flat-4 is a four cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a flat configuration, also referred to as horizontally opposed. ... The flat-6 engine of the Honda Valkyrie motorcycle A flat-6 is a 6 cylinder configuration of a flat engine or boxer engine. ... A flat-8 is an internal combustion engine in flat configuration, having 8 cylinders. ... The flat 10 engine is an engine with two banks of five opposing cylinders each. ... A flat-12 is an internal combustion engine in flat configuration, having 12 cylinders. ... A flat-16 is an internal combustion engine in flat configuration, having 16 cylinders. ... A V engine is a common configuration for an internal combustion engine in which the pistons are aligned so that, if viewed along the line of the crankshaft, they appear to be in a V. Usually, two opposing pistons share one crank on the crankshaft. ... Honda 90° transversely mounted V-twin A V-twin is a two cylinder internal combustion engine where the cylinders are arranged in a V configuration. ... 1700 cc High Compression Ford Taunus V4 V4 and V-4 redirect here. ... The V5 engine is a V form engine with five cylinders. ... The Ford Essex V6 engine V6 and V-6 redirect here. ... The Liberty V8 aircraft engine clearly shows the configuration, although modern automotive versions use a 90 degree block angle. ... A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five. ... Colombo Type 125 Testa Rossa engine in a 1961 Ferrari 250TR Spyder V-12 engine simplified cross-section V12 redirects here. ... A V16 engine is a V engine with 16 cylinders. ... A V20 engine is a V engine with 20 cylinders. ... A V24 engine is a V engine with 24 cylinders, suitable only for very large trucks or locomotives. ... The W engine is an engine configuration in which the cylinder banks resemble the letter W in the same way a V engine resembles the letter V. There have been three entirely different implementations of this concept: one with three banks of cylinders, one with four and one with two... A W8 engine is an eight cylinder piston engine in a W configuration, or two juxtaposed V4 engine blocks, coupled to one crankshaft. ... A W12 engine is a twelve cylinder piston engine in a W configuration. ... A W16 engine is a sixteen cylinder piston engine in a W configuration. ... A W18 engine is an eighteen cylinder piston engine in a W configuration. ... An H engine (or H-block) is an engine configuration in which the cylinders are aligned so that if viewed from the front appear to be in a horizontal letter H. An H engine can be viewed as two flat engines, one atop the other. ... A U engine is a piston engine made up of two separate straight engine engines (complete with separate crankshafts) joined by gears. ... The square engine is an engine configuration used on some 4-cylinder motorcycles like the Ariel Square Four. ... The VR6 engine is an internal combustion engine configuration developed by the Volkswagen Group. ... Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engines on the submarine USS Pampanito. ... An X engine is a piston engine comprising twinned vee-block engines horizontally-opposed to each other. ... The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... A pistonless rotary engine is an internal combustion engine that does not use pistons in the way a reciprocating engine does, but instead uses one or more rotors, sometimes called rotary pistons. ... Wankel Engine in Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany The Wankel rotary engine is a type of internal combustion engine, invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, which uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons. ... A heat engine is a physical or theoretical device that converts thermal energy to mechanical output. ... A thermodynamic cycle is a series of thermodynamic processes which returns a system to its initial state. ... A thermodynamic cycle is a series of thermodynamic processes which returns a system to its initial state. ... A stroke is a single action of certain engines. ... The Crower six-stroke engine or Crower Cycle is a concept under development by Bruce Crower. ... Today Internal combustion engines in cars, trucks, motorcycles, construction machinery and many others, most commonly use a four-stroke cycle. ... The Scuderi Split Cycle Engine design is a rethink of the conventional four-stroke Otto cycle internal combustion engine conceived by Carmelo J. Scuderi (1925-2002). ... A six stroke engine is an automobile engine in which the piston of the engine move up and down an additional time for each injection of fuel. ... The two-stroke cycle of an internal combustion engine differs from the more common four-stroke cycle by completing the same four processes (intake, compression, power, exhaust) in only two strokes of the piston rather than four. ... A pistonless rotary engine is an internal combustion engine that does not use pistons in the way a reciprocating engine does, but instead uses one or more rotors, sometimes called rotary pistons. ... The Britalus rotary engine was invented in 1982 by Kenneth W. Porter, P.E., M.S.A.E, of King County, Washington. ... A combustion chamber is part of an engine in which fuel is burned. ... Controlled Combustion Engine (CCE) is a type of internal combustion engine designed by Brad Howell-Smith in 1995. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ... An orbital engine is a type of internal combustion engine, featuring rotary rather than reciprocating motion of its internal parts. ... Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ... The Quasiturbine or Qurbine engine is a proposed pistonless rotary engine using a four-sided rhomboid rotor whose sides are hinged at the vertices. ... A cold (un-ignited) rocket engine test at NASA A rocket engine is a reaction engine that can be used for spacecraft propulsion as well as terrestrial uses, such as missiles. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Toroidal engine design is a form of internal combustion engine that features pistons that rotate within a toroidal space. ... The trochilic engine is composed of two mirror image gull wing segments intermeshed and rotating about a common central axis. ... The Twingle engine is a small-capacity two-stroke gasoline engine. ... Wankel Engine in Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany The Wankel rotary engine is a type of internal combustion engine, invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, which uses a rotor instead of reciprocating pistons. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The D Slide Valve was a form of rectilinear slide valve for use in rotative steam engines invented by William Murdoch and patented in 1799. ... Internal combustion engines using either four-stroke or two-stroke cycle with spark ignition and compression ignition, use poppet valves to allow air to flow through the cylinder head cylinder and exhaust gases out. ... Left side of a Ford Cologne V6 engine, clearly showing a (rusty) cast iron exhaust manifold - three exhaust ports into one pipe. ... In automotive engineering, an engine is referred to as multi-valve (or multivalve) when each cylinder has more than two valves. ... Piston valve in a brass instrument A piston valve is a device used to control the motion of a fluid along a tube or pipe by means of the linear motion of a piston within a chamber or cylinder. ... A poppet valve is a valve consisting of a hole, usually round or oval, and a tapered plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft also called a valve stem. ... Figure 1: A de Laval nozzle, showing approximate flow velocity increasing from green to red in the direction of flow The main type of rocket engine nozzles used in modern rocket engines is the de Laval nozzle which is used to expand and accelerate the combustion gases, from burning propellants... piston engine Bristol Perseus The sleeve valve is a type of valve mechanism for piston engines which have traditionally relied on the more common poppet valve. ... For the use of the term in optics, see piston (optics). ... The Bourke engine was designed by Russell Bourke in the late 1930s, who endeavored to improve upon the Otto cycle engine. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: not an article, just links to pictures If you disagree with its speedy deletion, please explain why on its talk page or at Wikipedia:Speedy deletions. ... The hydraulic cylinders on this excavator control the machines linkages. ... Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engines on the submarine USS Pampanito. ... The radial engine is an internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders point outward from a central crankshaft like the spokes on a wheel. ... A single cylinder engine, colloquially known as a one-lunger, is an engine configuration consisting of just one cylinder. ... The Stelzer engine is a diesel engine design proposed by Frank Stelzer. ... Usually found in 4 and 6 cylinder configurations, the straight engine (often designed as inline engine) is an internal-combustion engine with all cylinders aligned in one row, with no or only minimal offset. ... A sphere rotating around its axis. ... In Euclidean geometry, an arc is a closed segment of a differentiable curve in the two-dimensional plane; for example, a circular arc is a segment of a circle. ... The motion of a non-offset piston connected to a crank through a connecting rod (as would be found in internal combustion engines), can be expressed through several mathematical equations. ... piston (top) and connecting rod from typical automotive engine (scale is in centimetres) Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ... Crankshaft (red), pistons (gray) in their cylinders (blue), and flywheel (black) Continental engine marine crankshafts, 1942 Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. ... monkey ... The parallel motion was a mechanical linkage invented by James Watt in 1784 for his double-acting steam engine. ... The Peaucellier-Lipkin linkage (or Peaucellier-Lipkin cell), invented in 1864, was the first linkage capable of transforming rotary motion into perfect straight-line motion. ... In a piston engine, a piston rod joins a piston to a connecting rod. ... Cut away diagram of a Rhombic Drive Beta Stirling Engine Design Pink - Hot cylinder wall, Dark grey - Cold cylinder wall (with coolant inlet and outlet pipes in Yellow), Dark Green - Thermal insulation separating the two cylinder ends, Light Green - Displacer piston, Dark Blue - Power piston, Light Blue - Flywheels, Not Shown... The Scotch Yoke is a mechanism for converting the horizontal motion of a slider into rotational motion or vice-versa. ... The swashplate is the device that translates the pilots (or autopilots) commands via the helicopter flight controls into motion of the main rotor blades. ... Almen A-4 barrel engine The swashplate engine is a type of reciprocating engine that replaces the common crankshaft with a circulate plate. ... Watts Linkage The Watts linkage was invented by James Watt (1736--1819) to constrain the movement of a piston in a steam engine to move in a straight line. ... The Toroidal engine design is a form of internal combustion engine that features pistons that rotate within a toroidal space. ... The trochilic engine is composed of two mirror image gull wing segments intermeshed and rotating about a common central axis. ...

External links

• Animation of Gnome Rotary in action
• Ray Williams' operable miniature rotary engine website
• A rotary engine that runs solely on compressed air
• New York Rotary Association New York's Biggest Rotary Engine Auto Club
• History of the Rotary Engine from 1588 Onward
• Gif animation of a rotary engine