<VV> Radial Engine, not Rotary

[Jim Houston]

Doc:  ROTARY airplane engines have a fixed crank and the cylinders 
rotate.  RADIAL engines have a fixed crankcase and cylinders and the 
crankshaft rotates (same as regular engines).  Do a Google search on 
LeRhone Rotary and Pratt & Whitney Radial engines for more details..  
What you wrote is correct for ROTARY engines, by the way...  and, yes, 
they slung oil - a lot!  Since they used Castor oil, the pilots back 
then never had a problem with constipation!!

Jim Houston

On 4/16/2010 4:13 AM, RoboMan91324 at aol.com wrote:
> Scotty,
>
> That was a radial engine and yes, it seems an odd way to get  rotation to
> the propeller.  I am not sure what benefit there was to holding  the crank
> stationary and spinning the rest of the motor.  I don't know  if the engine
> slung oil but spinning the massive radial engine created a  huge gyroscopic
> effect.  For those of you who are familiar with this  effect, it would cause
> the airplane to nosedive when trying to turn left (or  right depending on the
> rotation) and go nose up when turning in the other  direction.  Of course,
> it would try to go right or left when trying to go  up or down.  These
> planes having a mind of their own took a lot of getting  used to and many
> trainees lost their lives before they learned the  counterintuitive techniques to
> get the plane going in the direction they  wanted.  As you might imagine,
> this was especially a problem on takeoff and  landing when adjustments had to
> be made due to cross wind, etc.  It took  lots and lots of practice to have
> full control during radical maneuvers such as  in a dogfight.   If you know
> anyone who still flies one of these  antique planes, just ask about this
> phenomenon.
>
> Doc
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> In a message dated 4/15/2010 7:29:08 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> virtualvairs-request at corvair.org writes:
>
> From:  lclarkpdx at gmail.com
> CC: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Sent: 4/15/2010   11:05:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time
> Subj: Re:<VV>  Yet another   Corvair slam
>
>
> The author has also confused a radial engine with a  rotary  engine in the
> part about the RX2, and claims that rotaries were  old  technology in the
> 1920's. I thought the wankel was invented in  the  50's.
>
> Rotary engines were common for aeromotive use in WW1;  the most common was
> the Gnome-Rhone.  It held the crankshaft  stationary and the cylinder
> assembly (air-cooled, of course) rotated to  spin the propellor (what an
> oil-slinger!)
>
> Scotty from  Hollyweird
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