Pix of unknown rotary at Oshkosh yesterday. You folks that are
there, any details on it?
Sam Chitwood
If it did not run it could be phony :)
Find a bunch of existing castings and cobble them up
to look like an engine.
Experimental aviation is the happy hunting ground of charlatans
and scam artist. Are they selling stock yet? :)
http://www.rotaryeng.net/What-is-a-rotary-engine4.html
Paul Lamar
I was there yesterday, for one day only. I saw this exhibit [in the
Rockwell hangar?...same hangar as DAR Corporation booth]
and I spent some time chatting with them. They are from New
Zealand, and are looking for investors [see Paul's very wise
remarks, below!] This is NOT a working engine, in fact, the crank
does not even turn. It's internal design can be seen on their
website
http://www.dukeengines.com
...check out their 'home' page, under 'technology' video. It uses
a swash plate, and axial sinusoidal movement of pistons moving
that plate, which turns the shaft.
Gene Kahn
The illustration on the web site is totally dysfunctional.
If the housing is stationary the pistons move back and fourth
so it is not a rotary. If the housing rotates and the pistons are
stationary like a WW I radial
rotary there is are lots of problems similar to a WW I radial rotary.
Cooling for one would be a major problem.
Scam pure and simple.
Paul Lamar
This type of engine gets reinvented every 20 years or so. The crank
system can work fine. It has a rotating cylinder block with ports in the
stationary end housing. How can they seal, cool and prevent ware of the
sliding surfaces and the rotating cylinder block.
It is a bit more compact than a conventional piston engine but not near a
Wankel. Paul's right.If they get funded, they are smarter than me.
Murry I Rozansky
Some years back, Cessna built a 5 cylinder engine with a similar crank
and cylinder arrangement but with a stationary cylinder block and
conventional valve train.
Murry I Rozansky
Well yes as a matter of fact they are looking for investment partners! The usual
stuff, will run on any fuel and they had a nice young ignoramus dealing with
questions, I understand it hasn't run yet. It is at booth promoting New Zealand
innovation, I went to a forum on the subject, some of their stuff is quite good,
but this seems to have a long way to go.
Anyway it's not really a rotary as the pistons reciprocate, perhaps something
like the Dynacam - what happened to that?
John Evans
Governments never seem to be competent enough to figure
out what is worth while and what is not. It should not be up to
them to pick companies and spend public money promoting them. The market place
is much better at doing that. As far as I know Felix Wankel never
got a public nickel. He wrote a very well researched and documented technical
paper on the subject of rotary engines and presented to a society of engineers.
It was then recognized to be a real advancement so several companies
licensed it.
Paul Lamar
Hello All, Yes I too looked at the engine. very interesting Yes they have
one running on a dyno in New Zealand its works similar to a Harbon rotary
water pump as far as i can tell . fixed spark plug inlet and exhaust
valves 101 lbs with 180 hp on any type of fuel Water cooled outsite
casing 5 cyl. rotating pistons and i think 3 firing pistons per 1 cycle
therefore no wasted energy as a 4 stroke. 8,000 rpm tested to 12,000 on
dyno
Cheers Jon. i hope it does very well one day they have a 90hp 180 and 350
hp model
Jon Gooding
Google never heard of a Harbon rotary water pump :) Do you have
any photo's?
What exactly is a "fixed" inlet and exhaust valve?
If the housing is fixed it is not a rotary engine. The pistons
are reciprocating in fixed cylinders. The Achilles heal
in such an arrangement is the contact stress in the ball and socket
joint at the wobble plate end of the connecting rods. It is limited in strength
on the intake stroke unless it is two cycle. That limits the RPM.
The same problem killed the dynacam.
The other major problem is the rotating disk inside the
head.
I suspect it has a rotary valve head. That is a whole class of engines
that have been around for many years.
Felix Wankel worked on a V8 torpedo engine with a rotary
valve head during WW II. It is near impossible to make it
seal on the compression stroke because the valve must
keep rotating.
Making one or two engines that run and having production models that
run for many hours generating full HP is another matter entirely.
It is a stock and public tax money scam pure and simple.
Bureaucrats are just not smart enough to make judgments
on new technology. If it had real technical merit the
big corporations would be all over it.
I amazes me the people of NZ put up with stuff like that.
We are fighting the same nonsense in the U.S. as we speak.
It is known as "investment". Real capitalist governments
do not make "investments" in anything.
Paul Lamar
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