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Radial engine in a biplane. 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.
Radial engines have cylinders mounted radially around a central crankcase. Rotary engines have a similar configuration, except that the crankshaft is fixed and the cylinders rotate around it. (This is different from the Wankel engine configuration described below.) Radial and rotary engine designs were widely used in early aircraft engines.
Internal combustion engines have to effectively manage the exhaust of the cooled combustion gas from the engine. The exhaust system frequently contains devices to control both chemical and noise pollution. In addition, for cyclic combustion engines the exhaust system is frequently tuned to improve emptying of the combustion chamber.
For example: the -18W was a "C" series engine, built from 1945, whereas the -21 was a "B" series engine, built from 1943. Until 1940 the armed forces adhered strictly to the convention that engines built for the Army Air Forces used engine model numbers with odd numeric suffixes (e.g.: -5), while those built for the US Navy used even (e.g.: -8).
Many of these engines are liquid-cooled, which is rare and difficult to achieve satisfactorily for radial engine. Air-cooled multi-bank engines, such as the Armstrong-Siddeley Hyena and Deerhound had difficulties cooling the rear cylinders of each bank.
A rotary engine is essentially a standard Otto cycle engine, with cylinders arranged radially around a central crankshaft just like a conventional radial engine, but instead of having a fixed cylinder block with rotating crankshaft, the crankshaft remains stationary and the entire cylinder block rotates around it.
The Pratt & Whitney Wasp was the civilian name of a family of air-cooled radial piston engines developed in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. [1]The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company (P&W) was founded in 1925 by Frederick B. Rentschler, who had previously been the President of Wright Aeronautical.
With Pratt & Whitney starting development of their own 2,800 in 3 (46 L) displacement 18-cylinder, twin-row radial as the R-2800 Double Wasp in 1937, Wright's first R-3350 prototype engines with a 3,350 in 3 (54.9 L) displacement were run in May of the same year. Development was slow, due to the complexity, and the R-2600 receiving development ...