Pictures Showing WWII Rotary Engine Crankshaft Arrangements: Where, Please ?

Bob,

A rotary engine had the crankshaft connected to the firewall and the
crankcase rotated. What you may be asking about is a radial. Popular
Mechanics has a nice article about aviation milestones including engines in
this months issue. I checked their web site, we'll have to wait til next
month to see it there.

BTW: there was only one throw on the crankshaft of a radial.

"Bob" wrote in message
om...
Hello;

I spent a fair amount of time searching, but just cannot find any.

I am trying to locate pictures that show the crankshaft arrangement(s),
and how
they work for WWII style rotary engines. e.g., the Wasp series by P&W.

Might anyone be able to point me to a site with a few pictures ?

Very curious about how the crankshaft was arranged so as not to interfere
with the piston rods, etc.

Thanks,
Bob

"eg" wrote:


BTW: there was only one throw on the crankshaft of a radial.


True only for a single row radial...some have as many as four
throws, for example the 28 cyl, four row 'R-4360'.
--

-Gord.

Radial engines do have one 'master' rod per throw. The other rods on
that bank of cylinders are connected to journals (lower end bearings)
on the master rod.
FWIW the master rod looks kind of like a banjo with the other
connecting rod lower end bearings arranged on an arc equidistant from
the main journal on the crankshaft. Each of the other connectings
rods is clamped about its own journal. You can see the sides of the
bottom of the master rod has to be split so as to hold the journals
between its two parts. As the crank rotates the bottom end of the
master rod goes around with it, dragging the other rods along. Of
course all the pistons go up and down and push the whole assembly
around. If you think this is complicated, the P&W R4360 has four banks
(a four-throw crankshaft) with 7 cylinders per bank. Your local
library probably has a book in its files that wll explain the matter
in more detail, hopefully with pictures.
Walt BJ

Radial engines do have one 'master' rod per throw. The other rods on
that bank of cylinders are connected to journals (lower end bearings)
on the master rod.


This might help understand the basics of how all that stuff goes
around:
http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/radial.htm


along with this animation:
http://www.wsaa.net/radial.htm


More explanations and animations:
http://travel.howstuffworks.com/radial-engine1.htm
(see also links at the end of the series of articles)


These are some of the people who sell plans and apparently at least
partial kits:
http://www.cincinnati.com/ageless/


This place seems to have some models, though the link to the aircraft
stuff is broken:
http://www.railwayshop.com/radial_engines.shtml


Some close-ups of innards:
http://www.robart.com/R780/r780con.html


Miscellaneous labors of love with link to a discussion forum:
http://www.engine-museum.com/



Cheers,
--Joe