So, Noah and I were talking about Radial engines and basically we got into the discussion of how the hell do they work? How are the rods layed out?
so, i did some digging through my collection of 20's - 40's aircraft manuals and found this stuff...
Here is a very basic crankshaft, very similar to most radial engines, the ones with mulitple banks just have more journals, like a car one. Most use a main rod with Link rods attached to it, this rod assembly ius one piece, well not exactly, but you get the idea.
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Here is another rod and crank assembly, the main rod beins fixed to the crank race and the other 4 attached to it radially.
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Here is the Wright Cyclone Rod assembly, 9 pistons!
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Here is the best drawing i found of a main rod.
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Another!
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Ok and here is the weirdest engine design I have EVER seen!
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You wonder how the hell it works?
Well this diagram shows way better...
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Thats bizarre!
More to come!