Doug sent this great 40 minute DVD from Japan with the fantastic  story
of how the rotary was developed by Mazda. We need some one to
dub in the English. Doug translated it from the Japanese version.
We allso need some clips of the technical parts suitible
for the web site so people can download them. You will need to set
your computer to region 2 (Japan) DVD.

BTW Doug, I have the great printed transcript but could you email  me the
electronic version? Thanks for the great work on this Doug.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

OK  Here  you go.  I've attached it as well.  Expect some garbage letters in
it because my computer system runs English on top of the Japanese software.
I brushed up many spelling and grammar mistakes though some may still
remain. It is difficult to proof read one's own work right after the fact.
Since you are familiar with what you wrote your mind tends to fill it the
blanks.  This holds true for working on your aircraft as well. How many of
our trouble could have been prevented with the help of another set of eyes.

That reminds me.  I am finding  Rhino to be a great aid with my homebuilt
project but also found the language a little difficult to understand:)
Ghosted viewports, boolean commands...etc.  Is this English?


ENJOY


Doug Fir


The development of the rotary engine.
Featured on the television program  "Project X."


{White Cosmo coming around the test track corner}


In 1967, a beautiful sports car was created. The car had a dream engine that
no one had succeeded in developing for 200 years, it was the rotary engine.
The rotary engine, in which the central triangular rotor part rotates in an
unique required no moving valves. It had more power than the conventional
type of piston engine of the same displacement.. It was also small but had
very high horsepower output.

The development was done by a manufacturer in Hiroshima. They had special
feelings for the rotary engine. The rotary engine was developed in an
atom-bombed city which was completely destroyed during the World War II.

Kenichi Yamamoto, who lost his family during the atomic bomb, was the leader
of the development. He dedicated his life to revival of Hiroshima. Yamamoto
and his 47 subordinates were called the rotary 47 fighters.  In Hiroshima
after the war it was a turbulent life for the young people who believed the
revival of Hiroshima.

This is a rotary engine inside the sports car. This engine is 2/3 in size,
more powerful and vibration free compared to the conventional piston engine,
type.

Many manufactures from all over the world had been trying to develop this
engine, but never succeeded. It was the engine of dreams. The members who
challenged this dream had  a tough hearted leader, 47 young engineers, and a
famous company president, all who believed in the revival of Hiroshima.



The commentary between the announcers was deleted. It was similar to the
above information.

**Translator Note: The 47 fighters were  named  after the 47 masterless
samurai story of hundreds of years ago who had waited patiently for one year
before revenging their lord who was unjustly betrayed. By killing the
dastardly noble person, honor was upheld but the samarai knew they would be
sentence to death for the deed}


[Kids in park playing.]

Hiroshima is a land based in the Chugoku region of Japan , the south part
of the main island where 1 million people live. 59 years ago, a most
terrifying tragedy happened. 1.4 million people suddenly lost their lives.
The city had the look of hell.  But there was one local company in the
southeast direction from the atomic bomb and only 2.4m away from the
epicenter which luckily escaped the destruction because the blast was
deflected by a small 70m high hill called Hijiyama.  The company1s name was
Toyo-Kogyo, a three wheeled car manufacturer that was founded in 1917. After
the blast the company factory became an emergency hospital for the bomb
survivors.  The factory was full of people looking for their families.  At
that time a young man hurried back to his home town.
Kenichi Yamamoto, 23 years old was sent to Ibaraki prefecture to help
manufacture fighting airplanes for the war. Yamamoto ran all over the city
trying to find his family but his hometown of Hiroshima was completely
burned down. He finally found his family but it the situation was tragic.
His mother had lost all her hair and was suffering from radiation disease
and his younger sister died immediately by the direct bomb hit. He was very
shocked about his sister since he cared for her very much. He felt like a
dead man.


Yamamoto speaking:
My younger sister was killed and it was quite shocking,  I wonder if could
live or not.

Yamamoto aspired to manufacture fighting airplanes and had studied design
engineering in college, but he had lost everything. He was lost. Everyday he
got drunk and  into fights with strangers. His mother ran around looking for
a job for so he could  once more get on his feet. She asked one of her
friends to get him a job at Toyo Kogyo.

Toyo Kogyo had lost 200 employees from the bomb, but they restarted business
only four months after the war ended again making the three wheel trucks.
The city government and other administration offices were also forced to
borrow Toyo Kogyo facilities. Toyo Kogyo was the center of revival for
Hiroshima. Yamamoto looked down on three wheel car manufacturing. At the
initial job interview he mentioned that the only place that he could put his
past experience to use was in the Designing Engineering Division. This
greatly offended the interviewer and Yamamoto was assigned to work on the
factory production line. Daily he continued to make careless mistakes and
was yelled at by the more experienced workers.  He thought about running
away. But one Sunday, he saw a three wheel truck loaded with reconstruction
materials running around the city. Everyone was working very hard.

Yamamoto,  When I saw the three wheel truck I was building, carrying goods,
from here to there and noticed the hard working people looked so lively, I
was very moved and happy. I felt as I was helping my city to reconstruct.


Yamamoto then went to sea near Hiroshima and promised himself that he would
work hard for this city and forget about his thoughts of running away.

[Kids in modern showroom]
In 1955, Japan was about to enter  into the 'My Car Age'. There were many
low end cars on the market. Toyota and Nissan1s new models were the most
popular and selling well but Toyo Kogyo still continued to make three wheel
trucks. Soon the market was becoming saturated so they had no choice but to
enter the four wheel automobile market as soon as possible.

The president of the company at that time was Tsuneji Mazda, 63 years old.
He was the famous president which called Mazda east and Honda west
[referring to market territory in Japan]. He was a stubborn man. President
Mazda ordered the development of a new car to be done by one man, a Mr.
Yamamoto, who was by now an ace player in the Design Engineering Division.
At the time, Yamamoto was 36 years old and was well admired by the young
engineers by his hard working style and his warm heart. He was often
addressed with the respectful phrase 'big brother'.

[Picture of Mazda Robo]
Yamamoto created a very functional car that left off needless items  making
it the most inexpensive car on the  domestic market... It  sold over 17,000
cars and was a huge hit and as such Toyo Kogyo was able to get into the four
wheel automobile market. But this success did not last long. The Department
of Trade and Industry had come out with a measure that made the car
manufacturers freeze production,  so that they could restructure the maker
groups  to prepare for the import liberalization. Mazda was very afraid that
they would be absorbed by one of the giant companies like Toyota or Nissan.

[Picture of the first Wankle]
At this  same time, unbelievable news came to their attention. A vehicle
manufacturer in West Germany has succeeded with the test experiments of a
special engine.  The rotary engine was an engine of dreams because of its
small size, high output and very small vibration. Over the past 200 years
starting with James Watt, who invented the steam engine, researchers from
all over the world had challenged to develop this engine but never
succeeded. By developing this engine for mass production Mazda thought this
was the best way to stay an independent  company. Mazda headed to West
Germany immediately.

The company at West Germany, was full with representatives of over 100 world
wide companies including the world famous Mercedes Benz and Porsche. The
settlement amount was 28 million yen, [about US$230,000] this amount was
worth the monthly wages of 8000 employees in those days. President Mazda
hesitated for a few days, but he realized the company didn1t have any time
to loose. On the 3rd day, Mazda signed the Agreement. Yamamoto was assigned
to play the key role of the development. Nobody knew at this moment that the
people who took part in the rotary engine development would live such
extraordinary lives

Project X.

The inventor of the rotary engine, Yamamoto-san will become 82 years old
this year.
Today we will have an interview with him at the Mazda Factory in Hiroshima.
A= announcer   Y= Yamamoto
[Yamamoto interview]

A) How did you feel when you heard your company made the decision to
develop the rotary engine?

Y)  I was then already designing engines and I knew very much how engines
were alive. To me the rotary engine looked like a toy. I thought it would
never become real. Everyone had tried to develop this engine but never
succeeded so I though there must be some problem and  I really didn1t  have
anytime for this project.

A) Well it was a gamble, wasn1t  it?

Y) Yes, it sure was. But the president mentioned that in order to survive,
we needed the competitive power in the international market. In order to do
that, we had to develop what other people couldn1t do and so keep Mazda
independent. At the time there were rumors we might be taken over by other
automobile companies. The president was very ambitious and said we have to
do this for all the employees at Mazda so that they could  keep their
livelihood. His  huge ambition gave me the motivation. For the company1s
independence, this big role made me very excited.

A) How did you feel when you were assigned to the key position?.

Y) Very honored

[Mazda factory and workers walking to work]

As an engineer, Yamamoto was both excited and fearful about the rotary
engine.  He tried to recruit  different members  for the project.  In the
fall of 1962 everybody at Toyo Kogyo was very nervous but the experts all
refused to take part in this new engine development because they thought
that the development was almost impossible. It was at that time a young
engineer stepped forward. It was Kazuo Takada. His older brother was also an
engineer at Toyo Kogyo but had died during the atomic bomb. He felt his duty
to continue his brother1s  dream.

Kazuo Takada comment
An engineer longs for a dream. Challenge and achieving success brings
happiness. Developing this engine of dreams was a dream of a mankind.

Takashi Kuroda another young engineer learned everything about engine design
from Yamamoto and admired him like an elder brother. He thought that if he
worked with Yamamoto they could achieve their task.


Takashi Kuroda comment
I thought I would like to be a member of the project and make Japanese
history. We walked straight into our dream. I had a strong desire to part of
a new  development.


47 young engineers gathered around Yamamoto. They were called the Rotary 47
fighters. Yamamoto said to everyone, Lets show the world the revival of
Hiroshima.

Hiroshi Ozeki comment
Yamamoto said to us; OECreativity,1 OEChallenge1 and in English OENever give
up. These three precepts were also called in English 'The rotary spirit'

With all good hopes, the test of the West German rotary engine began. But it
was certainly not working well. All the sudden, white smoke came out the
exhaust as  oil leaked into the engine combustion chamber. This was called
the Kachi Kachi Yama no Tanuki [a Japanese fairy tale where a wild raccoon
dog uses a flint and metal, the sound 'kachi, kachi' to try and make a  fire
but only succeeds in catching himself on fire]. They were told about the
small vibrations in the rotary but at low speed, the vibration was terrible.
It was called the Denki Anma [the electric vibrating massage chair.]

Takashi Kuroda comment
The engine1s poor quality depressed us. There were so many many things to
be solved.


Also, there was a fatal design flaw. The engine stopped running after about
20,000km. Breaking the engine down, the engineers saw that the inner wall
housings were deeply cut and had many scars.   This problem was called the
Devil Scars. The scars were created from the friction between the engine
housing and the rotor apex seals. Gasoline leaked from those scars and the
engine stopped.

Yamamoto returned from work everyday at 6:00 p.m. One day as they were
having a long fight he told his wife to just take care of the children, and
he then proceeded to stay in his room all night long. Until dawn Yamamoto
thought over each and every problem of the engine. During this period he
lost a lot of weight. Looking at Yamamoto everyday Takada. was struck by
Yamamoto's condition and felt compelled to succeed in helping him


Kasuo Takada comment
I was in charge of solving the  Devil Scar problem. I asked the company, to
make a miniature model of the engine and brought it home with me everyday.

I had promised to erase the scars  and I often stayed in my bedroom thinking
about how to erase the scars.  Even in bed my eyes were [open].  I asked my
wife to look after the children.

His wife  says,  "He  used to just sit there looking  at the ceiling
thinking very hard.   I didn1t want to disturb him so I kept quiet."



A young engineer, Yasuo Tachitomi was working on the oil smoking problem. He
couldn't find anything to stop the oil leaking. Tachitomo went to the
factory everyday and looked into the exhaust opening. His face was always
covered with grim from the smoke and his health suffered as well. His
drawings and ideas to solve the problem numbered  over 1,000. Still he could
not get rid of the oil leaking problem

Yasuo Tachitomi Comment

I  thought, "Not again, its still bad." "I had an idea, then went to test it
but the results were not good. There were many times that everything I did
just didn't work, so I went home, drank saki and tried to go to sleep."

At the research center, there was a small  mountain of failed engines. The
oil leaking, heavy vibrations and the  devil scars had yet to be solved.

Was this only a dream? Everybody was just about to give up. Some
professional criticized that the rotary engine development was impossible,
was nonsense and just fooling the people. To hear this was a big shock to
the young engineers.


The leader of the project had this to say.
Yamamoto comments

"I could not say anything in particular. I  blamed myself for not being able
to save the company.  People in this type of situation had stress build up.
I got gastric ulceration stress and my teeth fell out so I had to wear
artificial teeth."

Yamamoto thought of quitting the project and went to speak with Mazda in the
president1s office, Yamamoto said, I no longer have the power to move on
this project. He thought he will get into a fight with the short tempered
president, but Mazda said to him, You are the only one who can develop this
rotary engine. Only the person who loves his home city as much as you do
will succeed. President Mazda also lost his younger brother from the atomic
bomb. Yamamoto was moved by Mazda1s words. He remembered the day he promised
to help the revival of Hiroshima.

Yamamoto gathered the rotary 47 fighters and said, I will do anything for
this development. This is the rotary sprit. Will you come to the battlefield
with me? Everyone nodded deeply.



[Yamamoto Interview]

A) Together we have watched the VTR of you to this point of development.
Did you have something in mind at that time.
Y) No, it was like swimming in a pool without any goal. I wondered what was
the  goal? I thought I might just drown.  It was a very sever fight.
A) Every problem seemed so complicated. What were you most worried about?
Y) Our other engines had at least 10 years of R&D history behind them and
also had manuals but the rotary engines didn't have anything. It was like
making a street in order to walk to a place that had no roads, but we didn1t
even know how to make the road.
A) Looking at some of your early pictures you seem to be so skinny , and
your teeth all fell out, right?
Y) Yes, I went home every night but continued to think and didn1t sleep.
Whenever I got an idea, I would write it down in my notebook and give that
idea to the team next morning.
A) At the beginning there were many  young engineers right?
Y) Yes, I wanted to train them so they would  be good engineers someday.  I
thought is was their fate being in the rotary engine development team. I
asked them to believe me and to work with me.
A) Did you ever give up?
Y) No, in fact I actually liked the rotary, I liked it more when I bump
into a wall and came up against challenges. It was just like a child. I was
saying You are great, but let me just fix just some your parts.

In 1965, import liberalization started. Cars from USA started to land at
Yokohama bay. This year another shock arose, the merging of Nissan and
Prince auto makers that was under  the sponsorship of the Department of
Trade and Industry. The reconstruction of the industry started at a fast
speed. Rumors were flying that the next merger will be Toyota buying Toyo
Kogyo. From the day the city was atom bombed, the company has been the
backbone of its revival. The company1s and cities1 fate was to be determined
by the rotary 47 fighters. In the meantime, the body design of the car in
which the rotary engine would reside was beginning to take shape. The design
of the young engineers was very new, beautiful and unique. The low slung,
streamline body lines was perfect for the small but high powered rotary
engine.

Kuroda comments

Really I was very happy. It was truly very beautiful. I thought I must
think of some way to put the rotary engine in that body. We just had to do
it.

Yasuo Tachitomi, who also wanted to put the rotary into the new auto design
finally came up with an idea for the oil seals.,

Tachitomi comments
I like magic. Magic is the reverse of common sense. Man builds things based
on common sense. For example, this 100yen coin disappears from this hand,
but then ends up here.


Tachitomi came up with a totally unexpected idea. He suggested to use rubber
seals to prevent the oil leak. But everyone laughed since the temperature
inside the engine was so hot and they said the rubber will melt. But
Tachitomi aggressively grabbed some  rubber seals and tested the engine.
After the test, everyone watched while the engine was broken downed. The
rubber didn1t melt and the oil didn1t leak. The internal temperature of the
engine was lower than everyone had thought. The oil leaking  was finally
solved.

The hardest problem to solve was the Devil Scars. The friction scars were
made by the apex seals on the top part of the rotor. They found that if the
seal were too hard it will scar and if it ís too soft, the apex seal will
rapidly wear. They tried over 500 materials. One day, Yamamoto said he
wanted to try graphite, the material used for pencils. The slip was good and
made no scars but it wasn1t tough  enough.  A new engineer, Jun Miyata mixed
many materials with carbon but nothing worked. Miyata thought, how about
mixing a weak material with another weak material?  He thought about the
aluminum and he mixed them.

Jun Miyata comment
I was surprised myself. I knew the strength of the Aluminum and that of
Carbon, and  mixed together and through common sense I could guess its
resulting hardness. But its hardness turned out to be more than I expected.


The driving test was done with many employees in the  audience. The engine
continued running until 100,000km. The Devil Scars were gone. Among the
happy faces of the project members, there was Yamamotos smile who had been
breaking his back for the project.

May of the following year, the new car with the rotary engine was running
down the test course. Yamamoto was staring at the sight.

Yamamoto comment
Tears came to my eyes. I remembered so many things.  It was a our
honor to succeed

A half year later, it was launched in Europe. Benz and Porsche gloried that
the technology came out from the mighty work at Hiroshima. In USA, it was
said that this car will change the future of the industry and in was voted
Car of the Year.
In 1970, Mazda the president watched the success of the rotary engine and
passed away at the age of 74. The man who loved Hiroshima and watched over
the project now sleeps on the hill with a view of Hiroshima. With the rotary
engine as its strength, Toyo Kogyo increased its sales figures  and became
the 3rd largest  auto manufacturing after Toyota and Nissan. The company
with the best engine attracted the young engineers.
Yamamoto and the rotary 47 fighters who promised the revival of their
homeland, Hiroshima, enjoyed their achievement.


Yamamoto interview
A) Did your dream come true?
Y) I was very excited, yes the development of the rotary engine. I think
that the people who were involved with the rotary engine had an exciting
life. There were many troubles and problems but there were more joys after
these troubles. I don1t think  any car manufacturer in the world had the
same experience as we did. We are proud of ourselves.
A) You went through many bitter experiences, didn1 t you?
Y) We had a great ambition, a  challenge of new technology, we at Toyo
Kogyo were able to meet this  challenge and developed the rotary engine
because fate had placed us in Hiroshima.
A  Yes at that time Hiroshima had nothing.
Y. We might not have been able to do this project if we were in Tokyo
A.  So what is relationship with the rotary now?
Y.  Because we had a hard time the project glows and we can now appreciate
it what it  has become. Well now I am an old man. That we succeeded in my
lifetime I think its wonderful. HA  HA  HA


[Image of flames off gassing and people carrying oil cans]

In 1973, an unexpected event happened, the oil shock. A engine with higher
power than ordinary cars used more gasoline. All over the world there were
unsold cars and the company was in serious crisis with the banks which tried
to intervene in the management. Yamamoto rose once more to the challenge to
rebuild trust in the rotary engine. He implemented a goal of reducing the
gasoline consumption by 40%. This project was called the Phoenix Plan. In
1991, the improved rotary engine claimed the Le Mans race title.  The
leader, Yamamoto has protected the rotary engine with this strong spirit.
Now the ‘rotary spirit1 has been caught by the young engineers.


Yamamoto final comment
Whenever I hold the steering wheel  of the car, I feel my heart getting
warm. I like the sound of the engine. The engine has all the good and bad
memories inside and now the young engineers today have the same rotary
spirit as we did.  I am so happy.



Additional information<

Unfortunately NHK TV cut 5 minutes of the most recent development scenes
concerning the Renesis engine from this CD.  From what I remember watching
it on TV, a new young designer headed a group of rotary fighters and he was
inspired by his hero Yamamoto.  They were both in communication about the
project and Yamamoto knew from past experiments that the all side port
engine would be difficult to make.  Still he encouraged the group not to
give up.  The RENESIS engine development was mostly a low budget project.
The handful of members in the engineering team developed the RENESIS engine
in their spare time and at first had many troubles with the side exhaust
ports filling completely up with carbon as was shown on television. To solve
this problem they spent most of development time on redesigning the water
cooling passages.  Some were only a few millimeters in diameter.  Proper
heat distribution over the rotary side housings was considered the prime
challenge. The wax pattern for the water passages were very intricate and as
may be expected from other rotary experiences, design solutions were not
arrived at by using common sense. The intake manifold design was another
area that they were able to improve on and use computers to assist them with
their work. As Ford was managing the company at that time, the engineers
didn1t show their work to the American president until they were sure it
worked perfectly. The first Renesis engine was installed in one of the
engineers1 modified RX-7. After the president test drove the car around the
track he smiled and gave the thumbs up to make the RX-8 car.  The car body
designer recalls how when he bought his first RX-7 he was so in love with it
that he used to sleep in it. Now he is designing the newer car models but
said he really hated putting in two more doors in the RX-8.


Translated by
Doug  Fir 2-1-2006
Brushed up and spell checked 3-25-06

Paul,

For some reasons lots of number 2s and 3s and OE appeared in the text. I
think they were replacing quote marks.  Two mistakes were found.

Kasuo Takada  comment should read .....Even in bed my eyes were open.
Yamamoto comment on the  last page should read  Tears came to my eyes.

Other formatting doesn't show up on a email.


Doug Fir


The Rotary Engine NewsLetter. Powered by Linux.
ACRE NL web site. http://www.rotaryeng.net
Copyright 1998-2006 All world wide rights reserved.