The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its attached cylinders rotated around it as a unit. Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use in a few early motorcycles and automobiles.
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is called a "star engine" in some other languages.
The Taurus is a British 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine, produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1936. The Taurus was developed by adding cylinders to the existing single-row Aquila design and transforming it into a twin-row radial engine, creating a powerplant that produced just over 1,000 horsepower with very low weight.
The Jumo 205 aircraft engine was the most famous of a series of aircraft diesel engines produced by Junkers. The Jumo 204 first entered service in 1932. Later engines of this type comprised the experimental Jumo 206 and Jumo 208, with the Jumo 207 produced in some quantity for the Junkers Ju 86P and -R high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and the 46-meter wingspan, six-engined Blohm & Voss BV 222 Wiking flying boat. All three of these variants differed in stroke and bore and supercharging arrangements. In all, more than 900 of these engines were produced, in the 1930s and through most of World War II.
The Jumo 204 was an opposed-piston, inline, liquid-cooled 6-cylinder aircraft Diesel engine produced by the German manufacturer Junkers. It entered service in 1932. Later engines in the series, the Jumo 205, Jumo 206, Jumo 207 and Jumo 208, differed in stroke, bore, and supercharging arrangements.
The Lycoming XR-7755 was the largest piston aircraft engine ever built in the United States, with 36 cylinders totaling about 7,750 in3 (127 L) of displacement and a power output of 5,000 horsepower (3,700 kilowatts). It was originally intended to be used in the "European bomber" that eventually emerged as the Convair B-36. Only two examples were built before the project was terminated in 1946.
The aircraft diesel engine or aero diesel is a diesel-powered aircraft engine. They were used in airships and tried in aircraft in the late 1920s and 1930s, but were never widely adopted until recently. Their main advantages are their excellent specific fuel consumption, the reduced flammability and somewhat higher density of their fuel, but these have been outweighed by a combination of inherent disadvantages compared to gasoline-fueled or turboprop engines. The ever-rising cost of avgas and doubts about its future availability have spurred a resurgence in aircraft diesel engine production in the early 2010s.
The LeBlond radial engines, later produced under the name Ken-Royce, were a family of 3-cylinder, 5-cylinder and 7-cylinder, air-cooled radial engines for aircraft, built in the 1930s by the LeBlond Aircraft Engine Corporation until the operation was sold to Rearwin Airplanes in 1937 and renamed Ken-Royce Engines.
The Anzani 10 was a 1913 10-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engine. It powered several experimental aircraft and also the later production versions of the Caudron G.3 reconnaissance aircraft, the Caudron G.4 bomber/trainer and the first production Cessna, the Model AA.
The ABC Dragonfly was a British radial engine developed towards the end of the First World War. It was expected to deliver excellent performance for the time and was ordered in very large numbers. It proved, however, to be extremely unreliable and was abandoned when its faults were unable to be corrected.
Alessandro Anzani developed the first two-row radial from his earlier 3- cylinder Y engine by merging two onto the same crankshaft with a common crankweb.
The 1913 20-cylinder Anzani air-cooled radial engine was the first four row radial and one of the most powerful engines of its period, though few were used.
The Gnome 9 Delta was a French designed, nine-cylinder, air-cooled rotary aero engine that was produced under license in Britain. Powering several World War I era aircraft types it produced 100 hp (75 kW) from its capacity of 16 litres (980 cu in).
The Avia Rk.17 was a 9-cylinder radial aircraft engine, developed from the 7-cylinder Avia Rk.12, with a rated output of 270 kW (360 hp). The Rk.17 was one of Avia's own designs and was built in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s.
The Wilksch WAM series is a family of aero-engines for light and general aviation aircraft. WAM series engines are produced by Wilksch Airmotive in Gloucestershire, England. The engine outputs range between 100 hp (75 kW) and 190 hp (142 kW), and are suitable for both tractor and pusher configurations. Initially intended for homebuilt aircraft, the WAM engines may become certified for use on factory-built aircraft.
The SNECMA 14R was a 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engine developed in France just prior to the start of World War II from the Gnome-Rhône 14N. The 14N radial engine was itself an improved version of the popular pre-war Gnome-Rhône 14K Mistral Major series; designed and manufactured by Gnome et Rhône, a major French aircraft engine manufacturer whose origins pre-date the First World War.
The Lambert Mission 212 is a conventionally laid out low-wing, fixed undercarriage, single-engine, four-seat kit built aircraft designed in the UK by a Belgian college student. Kits are manufactured in Belgium.
The Guiberson A-1020 is a four-stroke diesel radial engine developed for use in aircraft and tanks.
The Michel engine was an unusual form of opposed-piston engine. It was unique in that its cylinders, instead of being open-ended cylinders containing two pistons, were instead joined in a Y-shape and had three pistons working within them.
The Diesel Air Dair 100 is an opposed-piston diesel aircraft engine, designed and produced by Diesel Air Ltd of Olney, Buckinghamshire for use in airships, home-built kitplanes and light aircraft. The prototype was built in the 1990s and exhibited it at PFA airshows. Although Diesel Air engines have been fitted to an AT-10 airship and to a Luscombe 8A monoplane, production numbers have been very limited.
