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The worst problem met in air-cooled aircraft engines was the so-called "shock cooling", when the airplane entered in a dive after climbing or level flight with throttle open, with the engine under no load while the airplane dives generating less heat, and the flow of air that cools the engine is increased, a catastrophic engine failure may ...
Radial engine in a biplane. The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is called a "star engine" in some other languages.
The Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp is an American twin-row, 18-cylinder, air-cooled radial aircraft engine with a displacement of 2,800 cu in (46 L), and is part of the long-lived Wasp family of engines. The R-2800 saw widespread use in many important American aircraft during and after World War II.
An unusual cylinder layout: a multi-row radial engine, where inline cylinder banks are shared between rows. Many of these engines are liquid-cooled, which is otherwise rare and difficult to achieve for the usual radial engine, with staggered banks.
The Wright R-2160 Tornado was an experimental 42-cylinder, 7-cylinder per row, 6-row liquid-cooled inline radial aircraft engine.It was proposed in 1940 with 2,350 hp (1,752 kW) for experimental aircraft such as the Lockheed XP-58 Chain Lightning, Vultee XP-68 Tornado, and the Republic XP-69.
Radial engines have cylinders mounted radially around a central crankcase. Rotary engines have a similar configuration, except that the crankshaft is fixed and the cylinders rotate around it. (This is different from the Wankel engine configuration described below.) Radial and rotary engine designs were widely used in early aircraft engines.
Many engineers did not understand the operating principles of the effect. A common mistake was the idea that the air-cooled radial engine would benefit most, because its fins ran hotter than the radiator of a liquid-cooled engine, with the mistake persisting even as late as 1949. [2]
The R-790 Whirlwind began as the Lawrance J-1, a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial developed in 1921 by the Lawrance Aero Engine Company for the U.S. Navy. The Navy was very enthusiastic about air-cooled engines, which it considered better suited for naval use than liquid-cooled ones. [1]