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THE FUEL !!!!! HOw the hell was delivered when the entire this in turning ???????????????????

So simple, yet so complex. I had no idea these engines even existed before two days ago. The idea of all the cylinders rotating around a fixed crank and cam shaft is something I never could’ve imagined. I can see why the motor was ultimately abandoned, all that reciprocating mass the torque delivered to the aircraft must be pretty intense, and you’d lose a lot of power to parasitic drain just to rotate all those cylinder heads, but with the crank stationary I imagine the engine is incredibly smooth. Absolutely fascinating.

So no conventional carburetor but fuel and air still needs to be mixed and atomized to become usable. How was this done? Also, if there is a rich combustible mixture at all times in the crankcase how did this not combust given blow by gasses carrying flame into the crankcase? And does this technically qualify as a two stroke give the transfer ports and induction/compression/ignition sequence?

The speed control by ignition must have lead to some spark plug fouling . Something I feel isn't spoken about when discussing this type of engine.

That seems nutty to not turn the crank, but fling everything around it, and then go flying it, but that's just me. Those men of those days were truly daredevils. 💯

I'd sure like to have access to the drawings for this. It would be a whole bunch of fun to build a running scale model.

I've known rotary engines were used in planes, but until now, not had a good description of how the fuel was delivered to the cylinders. This removes the need for carburettors. Amazing technology!

How does the fuel/air get into the compression chamber? It can't get past the piston rings, so, is there pipework or a channel fun the crankcase to the combustion area? How about balancing the whole thing? I understood that balancing such a rotating mass is really difficult, unless the mas of each cylinder is exactly the same.

These radial engines were developed further, when built under licence in the UK, by one Lieutenant Walter Owen Bentley Royal Navsl Reserve. He applied the idea of using aluminium for the pistons to lighten things further and also help with cooling (with the engine rotating in the air, the leading side of the cylinder gets cooled better than the trailing side). These led to the UK BR1 and BR2 engines, fitted in later Sopwith Camels and Swift aircraft, from 1917 onwards. But the differential cooling, rotating mass, and gyro effect (reported by other contributor below), limited the power development of the rotary engine - particularly as other manufacturers were introducing the radial engine, where the cylinders are fixed and the crankshaft rotated.

Excellent

how is ignition provided / fed, by armature or rely on 'pinking' !//!

These engines were reliable and fairly powerful in WW I aircraft. But...because the entire engine along with the propeller spun in the same direction, the inertia of all that weight was like having a large gyroscope on the nose of the plane. This would make it difficult at times for the pilot to maneuver in combat situations. Playing with a child's toy gyroscope can illustrate the point.

Reason why cooling fins was turned, not cast is that it made balancing the engine easier. The air fuel mixture drawn from the transfer ports is very rich and don't burn easily. With addition of air drawn from the overhead valve correct mixture is achieved.

Amazing. I'm 61 and have been building Airfix models and playing wargames with this plane in it for almost 50 years and I only just now learned why it was called a "Monosoupape" !

Wonderful explanation of an unusual engine.

Jenn’s having fun!

Only 100hp from 9 cylinders?

Isn't it a radial engine?

always way to expensive to build and maintain now and during ww1 andreliabilty was in question because of this

wow 100 hp

This video is gold

How does the inlet gas reach the cylinder? Via 2-stroke like scavenge ports?

they actually did make a six cylinder at one point... with the peculiar firing order one expects... as did lamplough but he chose scavenged two stroke over fourstroke...

Just brilliant engineering. My goodness ... like what was that design discussions going on when such things are being conceptuelised !!!

High maintenance ,but did the job

is a dual or 3 bank of 5-9 cylinders possible making one out of vw parts? custom rods, crank, and case of course if such doesnt already exist.

Comment ont ils fait pour équilibrer le tout ? Tous ces cylindres en rotation, ça s'équilibre simplement avec la l'inertie du moteur ?

World War I pilots inhaled and swallowed a considerable amount of castor oil during flight, leading to persistent diarrhea. Perhaps this is why WWI pilot uniforms were brown.

Still using castor oil? I wonder if regular 2 cycle oil would work, like in marine outboard motors?

that 200lbs of rotating mass and it slinging oil out must have been horrible in an open cockpit 1200lb plane

i wouldnt enjoy that hunk of metal spinning so fast. impressive regardless. and here i am unable to fix my 125cc chinese scooter engine lol

just stack two of them, gear them oppositely, give them own prop, doubling the HP and eliminating the precession issue. ...no one has the balls to try this????????????

I am having a hard time understanding this, can someone help me understand?

WOW! Thanks for explaining.

I want to know ho the made the machinery they used to make the fantastic engines back in the early 1900's.

I know this engine tech was short lived, but at some point did they find a way to control engine power? As many on this noted, it either full power or idle

Fascinating... mind blowing engineering really. Especially for 100 years ago

Monosoupape literally means one valve. So that explains part of the engine. But I think it also had a butterfly/reed valve, in top of each piston. So it would suck in fuel and air mixture through that butterfly valve in the the piston, and then the exhausts would be released through the single real valve in the top. Real valve, as in being controlled by the cam. But I might be wrong here. I have some vague recollection that the piston valve was not really needed, and it kept jamming, because of the stickiness of the castor oil used for lubrication. So the Monosoupape version, that is the single valve version, might be a later version that did away with the piston butterfly/reed valves. And used ports in the cylinder walls instead, like a two stroke engine. Which would make the name make sense, pointing out that we now only have one valve, the reliable one, and have gotten rid of the troublesome piston top valve. I'll have to google for this info some day in the future... 🙂

🟥 Fascinating engineering but it looks like a lot of reciprocating mass.

If you've ever been around world war 1 era rotary engined planes they sound weird when they come in for a landing. Remember there's no throttle so either it's on full power or it's off. The pilot will line up with the runway and turn off the engine. They loose speed and the pilot turns the engine back on to gain a little bit more power then cuts it off again. The prop windmills when the power is cut so restarting is easy. Eventually they land and the engine stays off.

I would love to see some diagrams of that fuel delivery system. I have a good mechanical mind and it feels like some 2 stroke elements going on here. Very interesting.

Who the hell puts music over this

I believe it was developed for the perpose of allowing long wait times on the field to await the signal to take off, without the problem of overheating.

That was a great explanation, I never realised how the carburation worked before.

This engine is a masterpiece, true rotary engine I think France used them on their Spads

nicely done! thx

Great video really enjoyed watching, what a interesting engine.

For those who don't understand terminology .... SLOW DOWN, and explain what the parts do in simple terms

What’s the point of the entire thing rotating?

Why waste the power produced by the engine in rotating the engine itself