Just a thought, and I don?t know why. But with the renisis side
 porting, or peripheral porting. It wouldn?t be very hard at all
 to make a  rotary engine run the opposite direction if a person
 needed it to. I wonder why I care?

 Bob M.

 You are probably thinking of a twin.

 It will run backwards but the internal cooling would be all screwed
 up :)

 Paul Lamar


 It would work perfectly in a parallel universe.
 jd

Paul,
With a few of us working on billet machined side housings (with steel
inserts), the  cooling pattern and bolt patterns could be mirrored and
the
rotor housings mounted rotated 180. This would give a reverse rotation
rotary that had identical performance, both hp and cooling. Other
stuff like
the oil and water pumps would have to be reworked for rotation, but very
doable.
This would provide a great twin set up.
Larry

We might even sell one :)

Then we will have to deal with the law of unintended consequences.

I think we are twenty or thirty years ahead of our time here.
Perhaps when I have my 100th birthday party.

First we must get 100,000 rotaries flying :)


Paul Lamar

Why wouldn't it be easier to beef up the e-shaft and use the other end
of the engine  for power output?

Victor

Much cheaper and more likely to work.
The required modifications are extensive but not nearly as bad as running
the engine in the other direction. A new front cover would
need to be designed and built as well.

Paul Lamar

Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't it be easier to regear the
PSRU/redrive to have have each turning in different directions for a
twin. We are already using them and Tracy's current redrive already turn
different directions biu with different reduction ratios.

Chris Barber


I would posit that counter rotation of props has little to do with the
safety of a given twin engine aircraft.  If you had an airplane that
otherwise was nice, and wanted to make it a bit nicer, making separate
left and right engines would make sense. Otherwise, I don't think it's
worth the effort.

A few interesting tidbits..  The P38 lightning props turn the wrong way.
Both engines are "critical." Done for gunnery accuracy somehow.

Some models of Piper twins came both with and without counter rotating
engines.

Twin safety depends on training.  And overall performance.  The way the
engines turn only sort of effects how close the blue line is to VS0.


</GROUCH

;)

Matt-

Gunnery accuracy was one reason, gyroscopic effects in turns will be
zeroed out in this way,  but there will also be a small aerodynamic
efficiency increase by doing counter rotating props, that have classic
wing mounted engines.

In war machines, they utilized this feature to squeeze a few more Knots
out of those aircrafts, as mentioned P-38, but also others, like the
Mosquito, and a few others had it.

An application like in a Piper twin, the effects would probably not be
too big, and the reason some had it and some don't, is probably because
of the availability of counter rotating engines, so I guess they
figured...what the heck, it does something....and did it....... if they
didn't have counter rotating engines in stock....I guess they said it
again....what the heck...and did it with two same rotating engines....,
but in critical applications like racers, and war machines ( at least
back in those days when they all had propellers) , and in very slick
aircrafts,  it is a desirable feature.

By reasons I have not fully understood, the effects is more pronounced
in two engine, than in four engine propeller aircrafts, thus even if
some four engine aircrafts had it, it is less common in that application.

Roger