Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: entropy@pawl.rpi.edu (Speaker for the Clams) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Rotary engine airplane troubles Message-ID: <10577@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 25 Oct 89 04:04:26 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 18 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Speaker for the Clams I've heard that some early WWI aircraft such as the Fokker DR1 and Sopwith Pup were designed so that the engine was fixed to the propeller shaft and the entire engine spun round and round within the fuselage. The result was that these planes could execute very fast right turns but could only turn left very slowly. Does anyone know for sure if this is true? If so, how fast were the left and right turns, respectively? What tactics were evolved to take advantage of this peculiarity? "He had a gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit." Mark-Jason Dominus entropy@pawl.rpi.EDU entropy@rpitsmts (BITnet)