Have you ever wondered...

[Heather Kay]

..how an aircraft radial engine actually works?

I have only ever had a hazy notion myself, but these videos explain it nice and clearly.

This is the sort of thing I can well imagine @Peter Insole making!

 

[SimonT]

Nice. When you get your head around this baby, take a look at a Bristol Centaurus - sleeve valves and a geared valve drive. Best aero engine sound bar none!

 

[simond]

Lovely!

Atb
Simon

 

[Locomodels]

Yes, but a few years before that someone had the bright idea of nailing the crankshaft to the airplane and watching the engine and airscrew go round.
They so nearly got it right!! Even W.O.Bentley had a go.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

It makes you wonder how the original designers thought up the radial engine.

 

[simond]

The crankshaft is a whole lot easier to make for a single row radial or rotary than for a multicylinder in-line or similar power. And it’s very compact, particularly lengthways.
And air cooling of all cylinders is more-or-less identical, which is another key advantage.

I always wonder what happens to the lube oil in engines with inverted cylinders. I rather think that the lower piston skirts will fill up with oil. I’m sure it splashes around a lot, but even so, I’d expect that oil (particularly older, probably vegetable oil) would char & eventually affect the balance, unless cleaned out regularly. Perhaps it’s too small an effect to be worried about.

Happy 2019
Simon

 

[Steph Dale]

Simon,

You're right, even very much later engines like the R-3350* had issues with lubrication fouling...

Steph

*The engine used in the B29 and Connie, amongst others.

 

[Peter Cross]

Going from what I've read the early ones leaked a lot of oil, I also believe they used caster oil, which had strange effects on WW1 pilots who ingested quite a lot while flying.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Can't beat the sound of a radial, no substitute for cubes.........

Col

 

[simond]

Prefer a “V”, personally.

Otoh, no argument regarding cubes...

Atb for 2019
Simon

 

[adrian]

I thought I'd posted this last year but can't find the post - testing a model 18 cylinder radial. A rather laissez-faire attitude to testing - I think I would have painted the tips of the prop though.

 

[simond]

Familiarity breeds contempt, I guess. I was at school with a guy whose dad lost his arms to a prop.

Still, the motor is a thing of beauty.

Happy 2019
Simon

 

[lankytank]

Why is that on every post on this thread, on the laptop, I get the error message - HTTP Error 404 & a statement that Microsoft Edge can't find this page...?

But when I use the tablet, things are Oakley Doakley. Having said that, sometimes things are reversed - OK on the laptop, nothing on the tablet....

Just curious (& a bit P'd off....!!)

Barry

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Aye, that's 'cause t'servers don't recognise owt north o'er M25.....

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Aye, that's 'cause t'servers don't recognise owt north o'er M25.....

North ?....where's that

 

[Heather Kay]

North ?....where's that

I think it's a bit left of East. Either way, it's the other side of that there London to me - something I hope we can rectify before too long.

 

[Max M]

North ?....where's that

It be the where strange things can 'appen to those unwary travelers....like gravy on chips, strangers talking to you and half day closing on a Wednesday.

It gets strangerer the further north you go....so I've been told. Men can toss their caber...IN PUBLIC!, they eat strange foreign food like 'tatties and neeps' and I am feared to mention the way they dress....

You have been warned.

 

[Len Cattley]

You mean like they did in 60's?

Len

 

[Eastsidepilot]

The old biker in me has built a few bikes in my time ( of the Triton variety mainly ) but would loved to have built one of these.....



But I did manage to marry a blonde bomb shell..........as for B29's they look good too

Col.

 

[simond]

B29? Surely more of a 36D...