What kind of engine is a "rotary" one ^^ ?

the same concept as the Wankel Rotary Popularized by Mazda.

in early 20th century planes, the whole engine rotated, acting as a gyro, lending biplanes their trademark manuverability. they looked like the later stationary radial engines...the cylinders were arranged in a circle, usually in an odd number.

Now i understood a little more ^^... i got the idea of it ^^... Thanks :D:D:D !!!

and the Engine would Spit Caster Oil and Grease they where Loud and Messy but only 50 HP.
they did not use Gas as Fuel.

with a propelor(sp?)


i'd have thought personally the pic'd give a clue to that ;)

heheh the dreaded rotary. the one disadvantage was the plane was weak turning in the same direction.

Ahhh... Steve Gallacci.. I really like his work. I haven't seen him or any meantion of him in years now. Hope hes still do'n ok though.

Cute scene, he might have avoided getting sprayed if he didn't stand right beside the engine :P

I remember first seeing that version of rotary engine, in which the whole engine spun to keep itself cool, and thought how odd that was. Till I realized why they did it that way.

Hmmm.. now got me thinking back to pics I've seen from the days that Aviation was starting to take up passengers... ^.^

As far as I know, Steve Gallacci is still doing okay, and taking care of his wife and home for the time being. He's "Semi Retired" from the genre and can't do much traveling these days.

Last time I talked with him, a few years ago, he said he was doing 'so-so'. I can understand the 'Semi-retirement' bit.

Thanks for the info.

See, I always wondered about that. Thanks for the public service announcement in this, Roy. I feel edumacated now! :)

--Drake

a rotary engine is a type of engine where the crank shaft is mounted to the firewall but looks similar to a radial engine, in a radial or traditional engine, the cylinders are stationary while the internal assembly rotates, in a rotary aircraft engine like the one shown, the cylinders and crank case rotate while the internals are stationary except for the pistons moving inside the cylinders.

And to make things worse... thinking back to some of the other Spontoon stories, didn't rotary engines of the era use castor oil as part of a fuel/lubricant mixture? Bleah...

And, incidentally, that's why many of those old rotaries had cowlings around the engine: to catch the splash. The Wikipedia entry for "Rotary engine" has more details.

Yes. Castor Oil. And that is why there were privvies located very close to most WWI era airfields. The effects of ingesting castor oil were very "Unplesant."

I recall reading somewhere (can't remember where, though) that the pilots drank like sponges, both to deal with the stress and to counteract the effects of the castor oil...

Funny! The first plane to fly across the English Channel had a Gnome Rotary engine.

Rotary engines don't leak! They just like to mark their territory. ;)

Well I guess that young otter is properly marked now.

Yeah. That's sometimes the only way to know that the aircraft on display at the Chino air museum are flightworthy. If they have oil pans under the engines and a few drips of oil present, the engine has definately been recently run up.

Oh...oh....my sides hurt on this one.

Well done. : ) I LOVE the now soaked otter's expression.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s always listen to the “advice” that the experienced chaos give!