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Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!tackett
From: tackett@wivax.UUCP (Raymond Tackett)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: Radial engines
Message-ID: <19702@wivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Jul-84 19:44:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: wivax.19702
Posted: Mon Jul  2 19:44:21 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Jul-84 04:31:18 EDT
References: <2920@rabbit.UUCP>
Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma.  01879
Lines: 25

I think there was a terminology problem on the TV show.  Radial engines
are simply those where the cylinders radiate from the center.  They 
were common on military aircraft and commercial airliners for many years.

Look at a picture of a Ford Trimotor for a good view of radial engines.

Some WWI aircraft had radial engines which spun the engine block as you
described.  The idea was that the lightweight wooden propeller wasn't much
of a flywheel, but the engine block was.

Ignition timing is a piece of cake.  A buzzer behind the firewall generated
a continuous spark which was fed to a wiper at the top of the firewall.  Each
spark plug hit the wiper as it came by and got a shot of juice.

I never did figure out the carburetion.

There is a beautiful display of a rotary, radial engine at the Air Force 
Museum, Wright-Patterson AFB, Fairborn, Ohio.  Some of the cylinders are
cut away and the whole thing is turned slowly by an electric motor.


-- 
			  Random Access is IMMORAL!                     

                                   Ray Tackett