Just brilliant engineering. My goodness ... like what was that design discussions going on when such things are being conceptuelised !!!

That's a hell of a lot of rotating mass.

Thanks for the great explanation of its operation. In my High-school days I was into WWI aircraft in a big way and when discussing engine types in Autoshop the Instructor berated me for telling him about a rotary engine where the full engine rotated around a fixed shaft as he was only familiar with radials and they made sense to him. Well, I kept my mouth shut after that but I knew he was dead wrong!

A real rotary engine! Finally a video that mentions a rotary and doesn’t mean a Wankel engine! Thank you, these engines have always interested me, would love to restore one.

That was a great explanation, I never realised how the carburation worked before.

Best explanation I’ve heard of these esoteric contraptions

Not only is it ingenious, it's a beautiful work of art! Thank you.

Many thanks, I've been looking at Sopwith and realised the engine turns and not the crank.

I would love to see some diagrams of that fuel delivery system. I have a good mechanical mind and it feels like some 2 stroke elements going on here. Very interesting.

Beautiful machining. I was just speaking last week with some enthusiasts about the LeRhone and Oberusal licensed rotaries. Brip, brip, braap. Orémus.

Fascinating... mind blowing engineering really. Especially for 100 years ago

Awesome! Thank you for sharing. Amazing technology in so many ways, especially for 1915.

One of the best antique airshows is at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome north of New York City near Kingston, NY. They fly a variety of authentic aircraft dating as far back as 1909.

"Is that an engine or a flywheel?" "Yes."

Beautiful engine and piece of engineering.

Excellent video ! Very clear instructions and engine views . Good job !

WOW! Thanks for explaining.

Very interesting! Thanks for taking you time to make the video.

Monosoupape literally means one valve. So that explains part of the engine. But I think it also had a butterfly/reed valve, in top of each piston. So it would suck in fuel and air mixture through that butterfly valve in the the piston, and then the exhausts would be released through the single real valve in the top. Real valve, as in being controlled by the cam. But I might be wrong here. I have some vague recollection that the piston valve was not really needed, and it kept jamming, because of the stickiness of the castor oil used for lubrication. So the Monosoupape version, that is the single valve version, might be a later version that did away with the piston butterfly/reed valves. And used ports in the cylinder walls instead, like a two stroke engine. Which would make the name make sense, pointing out that we now only have one valve, the reliable one, and have gotten rid of the troublesome piston top valve. I'll have to google for this info some day in the future... 🙂

Lovely work mates!!

Great video; very informative.

Interesting, good demonstration

Amazing technology for it's day! I'd suppose the fuel gets fed in through a central tube at the back. However the rotating crankcase made it into a gyro, which in turn made the plane very hard to control. It tends to roll to one side very easily, but to roll to other side takes a lot of effort and muscle power. This is coupled with the fact that these engines are either in idle or in full throttle.

Great video really enjoyed watching, what a interesting engine.

Beautiful job.

I want to know ho the made the machinery they used to make the fantastic engines back in the early 1900's.

Good video I have often wondered how that engine works 👍

nicely done! thx

...top drawer post, good animator!...be well!..l

Outstanding achievement. Go CAMS.

Very cool.

Excellent discussion - thank you very much! Can't say how much I appreciate outfits like this building working replicas of such historic engines. So see, hear (and smell) one running a century after they ceased to be used is just amazing. Gotta hand it to the original designers - the Gnome and Rhone engines and their Oberusel clones powered important aircraft right through World War One.

That is a beauty

High maintenance ,but did the job

One of the reasons that World War I aviators wore scarves is to keep them from having a severe case of diarrhea after flight: these engines were designed to be lubricated by castor oil. With open rockers, your face got covered with oil by the end of the flight. So caps, goggles and a scarf were important to keep you from injesting large quantities of castor oil 😉

🟥 Fascinating engineering but it looks like a lot of reciprocating mass.

Very awesome - I hope I find you made a video of it operating.

Engineering Marvel! 👍🍻

love to see the comparison with listed pros/cons next to the ww1 rotaries

This type of engine had the best power-to-weight ratio at the start of the war, in addition well balanced, these engines did not vibrate, the only problem was that the rotation speed was limited, therefore ultimately the power

I have a castor oil pump. Monosoupape.

I believe it was developed for the perpose of allowing long wait times on the field to await the signal to take off, without the problem of overheating.

So it has transfer ports but air flow reverses down the exhaust so it operates as a four stroke.

Should design two banks, make it contra rotating.

Imagine the rotating mass.

Apparently, like a 2 stroke, the oil is premixed with the gasoline.

Very interesting Engine was mainly used on or about first World War.

No the cylinders and the propeller are llink together

Would like to know how the ignition system works

I know this engine tech was short lived, but at some point did they find a way to control engine power? As many on this noted, it either full power or idle

that 200lbs of rotating mass and it slinging oil out must have been horrible in an open cockpit 1200lb plane

For those who don't understand terminology .... SLOW DOWN, and explain what the parts do in simple terms

i wouldnt enjoy that hunk of metal spinning so fast. impressive regardless. and here i am unable to fix my 125cc chinese scooter engine lol

If you've ever been around world war 1 era rotary engined planes they sound weird when they come in for a landing. Remember there's no throttle so either it's on full power or it's off. The pilot will line up with the runway and turn off the engine. They loose speed and the pilot turns the engine back on to gain a little bit more power then cuts it off again. The prop windmills when the power is cut so restarting is easy. Eventually they land and the engine stays off.

It's still a 4 stroke, isn't it?

Awesome explanation...but how much gyro effect when the plane turns since the whole engine rotates and secondly how does the engine gets spark to the plug while the engine rotates

No carburetor to gum up or adjust, just run it at 1250 RPM's and blip the ignition to interrupt it.

I’m not sure how true it is but I heard these rotary engines were made because early attempts at radial engines couldn’t keep the cylinders cool effectively enough so they made it so the entire engine rotated to create better air flow over the cylinders. Obviously this problem was solved due to the reemergence of static radial engines but I’ve never found what actually made them dissipate heat better.

So induction is by slip-valves much like a 2-stroke but with exhaust being via the single valve? And the crank carries the fuel-air mixture to their sump, so is it mixed with lube oil like a 2-stroke? Else how is the engine lubricated?

This engine is a masterpiece, true rotary engine I think France used them on their Spads

where did you get the drawings to build that magnifisant engine?

The main fault I believe, was total loss of lubrication, most of which ended up in the Pilots face, or goggles.

I would have thought, centrifical force would effect the operation but i guess not.

👍👍👍👍👍👍

How does the oiling work with the centrifugal forces?

Maybe show one that runs…..

Interesting. It's a 2 stroke, and the engine itself spins, not the crankshaft.

How to balance the anti rotation against the blade rotation in single engine flight.

1844 to 1929 Felix Theodore Millet France , tricycle.

With the rotating mass it must be hard to steer

A four stroke using two stroke induction and transfer, with valve exhaust.

what about the internal crank and con rod arrangement?

So basically it’s a two-stroke, right? I think Bleriot’s 3 cylinder Anzani engine worked on the very same mechanical principle..

they actually did make a six cylinder at one point... with the peculiar firing order one expects... as did lamplough but he chose scavenged two stroke over fourstroke...

"How the Gnome rotary engines works" Not too awfully bad, but imagine the gyroscopic effect on control of the aircraft. Those WWI pilots had to be well-trained! 1:06 - Strange to see obvious CNC tool paths on parts of a >100-YO engine!

so was there wasted fuel to completely exhaust the cylinder ?

wouldn't all that rotating mass be like a a big gyroscope in the nose?

?

One of the engines has to let go of the Rotary name. And it propably will be the Spinning Dorito engine, because it already has another name.

Sounds a bit like 2 stroke

WAIT! the fuel comes from the crank shaft?!?!

World War I pilots inhaled and swallowed a considerable amount of castor oil during flight, leading to persistent diarrhea. Perhaps this is why WWI pilot uniforms were brown.

No computer chips....... no worries.

I heard that those engines slung oil all over the place, I may be wrong. How was the engine lubricated? Did it have some kind of oil pump or was the oil slung around in the crank case?

*New engine for the F-35*

i guess discovering you could have the cylinders stationary and just turn a crank was a major breakthrough 🤣

It's a 2stroke then?

Number agreement? "rotary engine works" or"rotary engines work".

and famous cilindritis.

I am having a hard time understanding this, can someone help me understand?

1:20 "Fuck, that's wrong too?" =p

So you use ignition timing instead of throttle position to control engine RPM? Neat

Since it uses transfer ports, is it a 2-cycle engine?

Wish I had subtitles. That fellow is difficult for me to understand. Also, engineering mystifies me.

What’s the point of the entire thing rotating?

just stack two of them, gear them oppositely, give them own prop, doubling the HP and eliminating the precession issue. ...no one has the balls to try this????????????

Flying is inherently dangerous. Add a wood framed fuselage and wings, add 30 gallons of fuel, add being shot at with .50 caliber machine guns, and top it off with this 100 HP motor. Then a life expectancy measured in weeks makes sense.

It is a rotating radial engine without the extra things.

I thought you will start the engine.

OHHHHH IT'S A 2-STROKE. Ok that explains a lot.