Some stuff about Aero Engines for Hinkel

Hinkel was wondering (to do with Rise of Flight) what the difference is between a normal aircraft and an aircraft with a rotary engine, and how you can tell the difference.

In simple terms there are Stationary engines, Rotary engines and Radial engines.

A Stationary engine is like an engine you get in a car, where the cylinders go up and down and stuff explodes and it makes something spin around, in our case a propeller, they also usually have an adjustable radiator for heat maintenance.

Four-Stroke Engine



Here are some Aircraft that use this type of engine layout:

Supermarine Spitfire



Messerschmitt Bf109



Royal Aircraft Factory SE5



Albatros D.V



You can generally spot an Aircraft with this sort of engine by the length of its nose, and also that you can rarely see the engine itself, usually just the exhausts and air intakes/radiators (sometimes the top of the engine exposed, such as in the Albatros)

The other main type in WWI was the Rotary Engine:

Rotary Engine



In a Rotary Engine the cylinders (the bit that goes bang) are aranged in a circle, which rotate along with the propeller, these engines use Blip Switches as well as/instead of throttles, which cut the engine power when held down - I'm not sure entirely why they had blip switches, there might have been some reason why they couldn't use normal throttles in Rotary Engines, I think the one in the Camel just changes the number of cylinders that are firing, also I think it might be because rotary engines create a lot of torque, and so its harder to change the RPM, also Hinkel wanted to know what torque is:

Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object about an axis (Wikipedia )

Thats why Aircraft like the Sopwith Camel turn better in one direction than another, because the whole engine is spinning, which creates torque which is trying to roll the entire aircraft in that direction.

Rotary engines are easier to cool it seems (which is why they have no radiator in RoF), as the cylinders spin around - and also they're open at the front of the aircraft, rather than inside the aircraft.

Here are some Aircraft that use this type of engine layout:

Sopwith Camel



Fokker Dr.1 Triplane



Airco D.H.2



Fokker Eindecker



You can generally spot an aircraft with a Rotary engine as it will have a shorter, flat nose - with a circular end, also you can see all of or most of the engine cylinders arranged in a circle if viewed from the front.

Another type of engine is a Radial Engine, don't think any of the WWI stuff in Rise of Flight have Radials, so wont say much on them, other than they look like Rotary engines, but the cylinders don't spin with the propeller.



Here are some Aircraft that use Radial Engines

Bristol Blenheim



Focke-Wulf FW190



Hope that helps, might not necessarily be right - I'm only a first year Aeronautical Student you know!

nice good reading

explains a lot

thank you for the information

Thanks Hink, glad it helps.

To be honest the easiest way to see if your Aircraft has a Rotary Engine in Rise of Flight is to hold down the blip switch, if the engine stops it's a Rotary, if not then it isn't.

Here's a good video that shows the Rotary Engine in a Sopwith Camel, when he nearly gets shot down by a Fokker Dr.1 ( )



You can also hear the bursts of power from the engine from when he's using the blip switch.

Also, how much would you not want to be the bloke that has to spin the prop?



We'll get Dezey to do that bit.