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MG TD TF 1500 - Not MG, How Clever Was This

Maybe you guys are already aware of this!

http://www.youtube.com/embed/Y0XbqHUAI-0?feature=player_detailpage



Graeme
G Evans

now that is neat. thank you for posting..of course to me it sounds like it should be bolted to the front end of an airplane...very cool. regards, tp
tm peterson

I think this design was used on some aircraft engines in the 20s or 30s but I do not quite understand what the advantage was.
John Quilter (TD8986)

The Sopwith Camel (made famous by Snoopy) had an engine like that. Problem was, with that mass of cylinders, oriented vertically, rotating at great speed, the gyroscopic effect was tremendous - if the pilot tried to turn the plane it would either pitch up or down, depending on which way he tried to turn. Push the stick forward to dive and the plane turned right (or left) and the opposite if the the stick was pulled back. The Brits lost more pilots trying to learn how to fly the plane than they lost in combat. Those pilots who mastered it, could turn on a dime and give you 9.5 cents change. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

The radial engine is simple,light and the rotating finned cylinders are well cooled.

Later engines fixed the cylinders and spun the crank but were basically the same design and were in use well into the 1960's in planes like the DC3.

Some planes like the Fairey Gannet had contra rotating props to balance out the torque effect.
Chris at Octarine Services

The Le Rhone 9j Rotary, that has been mentioned, was used on aircraft during the WWI period. When started it went to wide open. There was a blip switch on the stick to momentarily shut it down and fire it up to taxi, when completely releasing the blip switch, the engine ran wide open. It didn't have a controllable carburetor as we know it. Odd, but very effective engine with the prop bolted to the crank case, not the crank. PJ

Paul S Jennings

as pj points out this video is of a rotary engine, the radial, although similar in appearance, was a completely different animal. the M14 radial is a current production radial engine heavily used in sport aerobatic aircraft. another light radial engine, built by rotec is used in the light sport category aircraft, is also a modern, current production engine. regards, tom

http://www.radialrocket.com/m14.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedeneyev_M14P
http://www.rotecradialengines.com/
tm peterson

Frankly, I'm surprised MG didn't adopt this engine, it seems like the kind of mad engineering they would like!

I'm interested to find out more about the rotary motorcycle motor he mentions...
Geoffrey M Baker

This thread was discussed between 25/01/2014 and 28/01/2014

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