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-

"Twin safety depends on training. And overall performance."

Performance requirements vary, on the left coast we are often forced to fly
rather high to avoid cumulo granite, loose an engine at 10k and you will be
coming down, maybe not to sea level,  but the ground might also come up to
meet you. With an engine out there might be other serious things going on as
well, so chances are you could be a wee tad busy. If counter rotating props
is easily done with a gear set change it would certainly be a worthwhile ace
to have up your sleeve. Bear in mind also when one of those critical engines
in your lightning fails you will feather your prop. Doing this on you rotary
will be much harder than counter rotating.

John


You'll need a backwards prop too.

People that don't train adequately don't belong in twins. If you train adequately, you don't need counter rotating props.

The old rule for light twins is that when one engine bails out, the pilot should pull both throttles back and pick a landing site.

Vy is higher than the blue line. Usually significantly.


Matt-