The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I am looking for a film that shows to old radial engines, the one were the cylinders spins.
Any one know were I can find one?
Thanks
Dave

Check out 'Dawn Patrol'. It's a WWI movie and has all the old planes.

daveramp.

Those old engines with the spinning cylinders are not "Radials".

They're "Rotarys".

The old LeRhone Gnome engine was a rotary, and is distinguishable by it's "ON-OFF-ON-OFF" sound. (This is the common sound that most folks assicitate with a failing engine, but the Gnome ran this way ordinarily. The pilot controlled the engine RPM by pressing a button which momentarily killed the ignition. Otherwise it ran full open. The torque effect on the airframe made it a poor choice for a fighter because it's ignition-throttle upset the pilot's aim. The gyroscopic forces of the rotating engine was also a burden.) The engine was usually cowled only partially. It appeared to have an upper, but not a lower cowling.

Go to http://www.oldrhinebeck.org/ and look thru their archives. They have several rotary engined planes that they fly on a regular basis every weekend at their airshows and just might have some video footage of them running. They also run a Liberty engine on a trailer, awesome! If you haven't been there and done that, shame on you.

Used to be a number of those rotary engine planes hanging in a museum in Long Beach CA about 30 some years ago. Don't know if they are still there or not.

What about the opening scenes in "The Kid". Last scene pretty good too.
Beautiful red Waco? Bruce Willis stars. Kinda reminds you of being a kid yourself.
Makes you feel good about the choices you made in life.

the latest AOPA magazine has a list of movies
iowa

blueldr wrote:daveramp.

Those old engines with the spinning cylinders are not "Radials".

They're "Rotarys".

The cylinders are in a radial layout, as opposed to in-line, horizontally opposed, Vee, etc. I see not reason it can't be called a 'radial rotary'. This would be different than a Wankel, which is a totally different type of rotary. IMHO

bsdunek wrote:

blueldr wrote:daveramp.

Those old engines with the spinning cylinders are not "Radials".

They're "Rotarys".

The cylinders are in a radial layout, as opposed to in-line, horizontally opposed, Vee, etc. I see not reason it can't be called a 'radial rotary'. This would be different than a Wankel, which is a totally different type of rotary. IMHO

You wouldn't want to say that to a Gnome or LaRhone driver. They don't think of Wankel a real rotary. The cyls. are stationary.
brad

gahorn wrote:The old LeRhone Gnome engine was a rotary, and is distinguishable by it's "ON-OFF-ON-OFF" sound. (This is the common sound that most folks assicitate with a failing engine, but the Gnome ran this way ordinarily. The pilot controlled the engine RPM by pressing a button which momentarily killed the ignition. Otherwise it ran full open. The torque effect on the airframe made it a poor choice for a fighter because it's ignition-throttle upset the pilot's aim. The gyroscopic forces of the rotating engine was also a burden.) The engine was usually cowled only partially. It appeared to have an upper, but not a lower cowling.

The roteries may have had all of the bad characteristics George points out, they did have one saving grace. It is folk lore that the pilots were plied with Blackberry Brandy to counteract the effects of breathing so much Caster Oil. Yeepee

The fascinating and beautiful thing about the rotary engines, Wankels included, is that except perhaps for the valve trains on the aircraft rotaries, there are no reciprocating motions going on. With respect to the stationary crankshaft, all the parts are whirling around it in circles (not all on the same center).

If this is hard to visualize, see http://www.keveney.com/gnome.html and http://www.keveney.com/Wankel.html

Best Regards,

John

Not perzactly, John. Gnome rotaries had pistons that reciprocated.

Hi George,

Yes, I understand, the pistons go back and forth with respect to the cylinders. But the cylinders are also moving, and the net result is that with respect to something fixed, like the engine mount or airframe, the Gnome's pistons are all flying around in a perfect circle, not going back and forth at all. It's hard to visualize, but very clear in the animation link I gave above. A reciprocating engine with no reciprocal motion -- very cool, I think!

John

Well, looking at it again, I'm wrong about the pistons going in circles. It appears to be more of an elliptical path, which is *almost* not reciprocating. Still, a lovely motion, IMHO.

John