Radial engine bike by Jesse James

[Pancakes]

Awesome tractable power and great economy would be a small turbine creating current to feed an electric motor. I doubt it would weigh more than a conventional engine of the same power and would be compact. Max power available on demand at any speed and low fuel use when cruising.

[terbang]

The plot even thickens a bit more. Early Rotary engines fitted to WW1 vintge aircraft, had the cylinders mounted in a radial fashion around a common crank. The crank was fixed to the aircraft and the prop was fixed to the crankcase! The cylinders, crankcase and the prop were all one spinning assembly.
The Radial engines that came later were similar in construction but the cylinder assembly was fixed to the aircraft and the prop was connected to the crank. And the other kind or Rotary that we know from the Mazda or Norton is called a Wankel engine (I know what you just thought).

I think that the engine fitted to the bike this thread refers to is a Rotec engine, made in Aussie, of fairly modern build with only about 110HP.

[James Deuce]

Gnome Rhone rotaries were WWI era engines and used total loss lubrication, hence the REAL reason why pilots wore scarves. It was to wipe off all that Castor oil that was flung off. Fokker DR1 and Sopwith Camel both used rotaries and turned better to the left than the right thanks to the gyroscopic forces involved.

The pilots also used to get the shits from all the Castor Oil they drank, and is often the reason why so many of them were invalided out of the front from time to time. Probably explains why they were all so skinny and looked like death warmed up.

[Animal]

Of course, you can have a rotary radial as well - a radial which spins around leaving the crank stationary. Ok perhaps in a plane, but I think probably about the least practical option for a bike ...

I think the Spitfire (not the Triumph one) had one of those?

Richard

Nah, Spitfires and Hurricanes had V-12 Merlins... hmmm. Later Spitfires had Griffons, same configuation, insane power!

I'm under correction here, but the best-known rotating radial was the La Rhone. The back end of the crank was indeed bolted onto the fuselage and the engine and prop spun about in unison. That was a pretty early design though, pre-WW1. Don't know how robust they were but they'd never overheat!

One of the more interesting British aircraft engines was the Napier Sabre. Four banks of horizontally-opposed cylinders driving two crankshafts geared onto each other. Unreliable as hell, but immense power output. They were used in the Hawker Typhoons, among other things.

[Animal]

Buggerit, I'm two steps behind Jim2 and Terbang on replies...

[nudemetalz]

I saw those Wright radials on a Super Constellation (interesting aircraft in it own right). The exhaust pipes all merged into a fat cylinder with a turbine wheel centred in it, and coupled directly to the back of the crankshaft. The Wright manuals termed the system Turbo-Compound for reasons known only to themselves. Interestingly, the Wright's reduction gearbox spun the prop in the opposite direction to the crackshaft, which was meant to counterract the torque. I can't say whether it was a success or not.

The Connie's used to have constant engine problems with the Wrights.
However, with the jet-airliner (707) age already knocking on the door, the radials were on their way out, anyway.
Basically (I mean very basically) you could get the same hp's for about a third of the engine weight. Add a propeller (turbo-prop) and bye-byes piston engines.

[Paul in NZ]

When I was young (er) I owned a WW2 Daimler Dingo Armoured car (was more a reco vehicle than a fighting vehicle) that was technically a magnet to me... Fluid flywheel, 5 speed preselector g/box, 4WD, 5 forward and 5 rev gears...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daimler_Dingo

Tres Cool BUT through owning this - I was offered a 'Honey' tank which was really a Stuart M3 (The brits called them Honeys for some daft reason - not particularly scary like Tiger or Panther was it... Mein Gott Herman - are those Honeys I see )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_tank

Anyway - it had a radial air cooled engine that was started by a black powder charge like a shotgun cartridge - fabulous thing... The deal fell through when we could not come up with a viable place to keep it - Dad was not too keen on it being parked at our place ... RATS!

Later ones had twin flathead V8's (seen one o dem too) which is bloody cool but nothing on a genuine radial engine...

The price??? $375.... Far out...

Paul N

[Paul in NZ]

Oh - the Dingo cost $325 and i sold it for $350.... Woo Hoo... Did 9mpg on the open road and 4mpg off road.. fark!

[terbang]

Thats it, turboprops replaced pistons with lighter, more eficient and easier to operate installations. However jets (Mmmmmm) changed the way we built aircraft and flew them offering much more speed (Mmm again) and much higher altitudes.

[MotoKuzzi]

What aeroplane did the R-4360 originally power?

[nudemetalz]

6 of them powered the monstrous Convair B-36 and also 4 of them on the B377 Stratocruiser airliner.
Here's some good info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_&_Whitney_R-4360

[Conquiztador]

Disclaimer: Don't fry me if this is a repost!

I like it!

No frying. Stuff like that needs to be posted and re-posted. Here the link again:

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/20...ed-motorcycle/

[nudemetalz]

I just LOVE radial engines....check these out

Awesome model radial engine:-
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1rjRmTV9qE[/youtube]

Real thing:-
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2ChXmMiXjY[/youtube]

mmmmm......

[nudemetalz]

.........and ain't it weird to see a tank powered by a radial !!!

The early model Shermans were, but later were converted to Ford V8's, Caterpillar diesels, and GM diesels

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXLL5hxkl58[/youtube]

[pete376403]

The Sherman (?) engine was a Chrysler bitza - five x six cylinder flathead blocks on a common crankcase. I believe that was the origin of the Pentastar as the Chrylser insignia http://shopswarf.orcon.net.nz/chrypen.html

and heres a link to the building of the radials for the B29 bomber. Designed by Wright, but built by Chrysler -
http://allpar.com/history/military/b-29.html