Early WW-I airplane engines were like that.

@@ProperLogicalDebate Was just about to comment that.

@@ProperLogicalDebate Nothing new in having the cylinders rotating and the crankshaft stationary. But I think WW1 engines would have 'proper' distributors ;)

@@ProperLogicalDebate They were used extensively in WW2 and are still in use today in light aircraft.

Their quickly throws up all oil and power was limiter by maximal revs above which cylinder break off because of centrifugal force.

They were invented for aircraft over a hundred years ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine

@@harry130747 Yes, but those rotaries you see in the Wikipedia article all have poppet valves - you can see the pushrods at the front of the engine cylinders. What makes Mr Hansen's engine so novel is that it uses sleeve valves - see his video between 2:30 and 2:55 and you can see the valve operating. Cheers Paul

ferret150 Får du leva och ha hälsan så blir du också gammal förstås.,det kan inte undvikas. Skolan leder ju till något och den varar ju inte så länge. Jag räknade ut att jagbhar varit inskriven i olika skolor i 23 år, varav jag pluggat en del halvtid

No he was just kidding!!!

In the rotaries yes (predominantly gnome engines). But not generally. The wast majority kept their cylinders stationary though.

All rotary engines are still radials. They just have the cylinders and case rotating rather than the crankshaft.

Correct. Unfortunately the rotary term has been widely misused for Wankel engines

Well, not exactly... ...a "radial" engine has cylinders radiating out from the case. A "rotary" engine is a radial engine with the crankshaft fixed and the whole engine rotating around the crankshaft. Both are types of radial engines. The Wankel engine would more accurately be called a "rotor" engine, due it's metatrochoid internal rotor.

No, it is a true rotary. Most people refer to a Wankel as a rotary, but this is technically wrong. An engine with radially arranged cylinders that rotate around a fixed center is a true rotary, which is what he built here. This and a Wankel have absolutely nothing in common.

I'd like to know how much vibration there is, and what's the possible efficiency. In a regular piston engine there's a lot of vibrations because the pistons are moving up and down. With this, the pistons are swinging around in a circle, and so are the cylinders. Nothing is reciprocating. There should be much less vibration, and maybe this should result in much better efficiency.

@@johnfasanoii4382, kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qsCdl5qcmJmuh3k.html

In regards to the engine being efficient with plenty of torque...vizioracer does videos with specs listed and one thing I've noticed with radials is the torque is something like ten times the amount of hp... if I can recall correctly, there were some engines with 20-50hp but torque levels around 250-500 lb/ft. I'm guessing this is due to the added weight of the rotating cylinders acting as a flywheel of sorts. Whatever it is, it's definitely an oddity among internal combustion engines.

This sounds like my Kubota 3cylinder tractor. Haha

fla playa it practically is one

was there any advantages of this configuration?

Air cooling was quite easy, as the engine itself was whinging around at high speed

+Na Cel Yes, Rotary engines require no flywheel offering excellent power-to-weight ratios and very smooth power delivery, natural air-cooling is also a big plus.

bacorable The phenomena of "Gyroscopic Procession" was the main reason their use was discontinued

The real doktorbimmer → AFAIK, *another problem* with the rotary radial engines was as they got BIGGER {more horsepower}, "centrifugal force" INCREASED and the engine would be more susceptible to *FAILING* and *COMING APART IN FLIGHT*. And THAT would ruin ANYONE'S DAY.

Also by the British Bristol company in WW2.

Yes, they’re called aerial rotary engines. Totally different design than automotive rotary engines but they share the same name.

@@averagecarguy420 The rotary engine predates powered flight by almost 20 years, it's not an "aerial" engine, despite it later being widely used in some WWI era fighters. Felix Millet patented the first rotary engine design back in 1888 for use in a bicycle. From then, many companies designed and built rotary engines for use in bicycles, motorcycles, cars and stationary applications long before one was ever mounted to an aircraft of any type. It reached its peak of development at the end of the war and was abandoned in favor of other engine types due to its design issues. Power couldn't be scaled much past 260 hp because of RPM limits increasing drag that siphoned off engine power. The bore and stroke couldn't be increased because of weight, additional drag and exacerbating the already unmanageable gyroscopic effects. The Bentley B.R.2 or the Siemens halske SH.III were probably the best examples of the peak of rotary engine development. While Felix Wankel patented his wankel engine design in 1929, it wasn't until 1951 until he actually started trying to build it and 1957 that a workable engine could be commercially released. So it came around 70 years after the first rotary engines had existed.

Ha! Have you seen what passes for a 'machinist' now in a 21st century shop? This man is a god! And I'll betcha the little pricks wouldn't even want to hear the stories of how they "did it in the day".

+Jim Vicious Sad, but correct :(

I am a "modern day machinist" and I have been searching for how it was all done back in the day. look up old time steam machine shop. it's awesome!

rotary is a triangleish shape piston. This is radial.

+Mitchell Richardson I believe that you are thinking of the Mazda automotive type of rotary. The original aircraft type rotary of WW1 had a fixed crankshaft with the crankcase rotating around it. The radial has a fixed crankcase with a rotating crank as WW2 aircraft used

lemontier Absolutely correct.

Mazda Rotary® was a now defunct brand name of Wankel Orbiting Piston type engines..

Felix Millet invented the Rotary ICE in 1892.. Dr Felix Wankel borrowed the concept for the layout of his Orbiting Piston supercharger and later adapted it into a prototype engine called the DKM-54.. the DKM was never developed into a production design.. Dr Hanns Paschke discarded the Rotary layout in favor of the conventional layout in his KKM design that was later sold to Mazda and dozens of other licenses's

"conventional" engines. this is "unconventional."

This is a very basic and conventional old fashioned motor. Base design for early ww1 aircraft. Refer to Gnome rotary engines.

anything with a motor that hits more than two cylinders is better than a 2015 triton lol