countrytravler Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 (edited) At the 3:35 mark, looks like they are priming the engine. Looks like the jugs are rotating. Can anyone explain how this worked? I thought that this was amazing having this setup worked back then. Edited December 2, 2015 by countrytravler (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzcarnerd Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 It has a rotary engine, a type that was widely used in WW1. Put simply the block spins with the prop and the crank remains still. Some basic info here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capngrog Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 As nzcarnerd stated, the engine is a rotary. The crankcase and cylinders rotated with the propeller while the crankshaft remained stationary. There was no throttle as we know it, and power adjustments were made by intermittently grounding the magnetos, or as it was called, "blipping the engine". The airplane itself appears to be a Fokker DR. 1 triplane. Cheers,Grog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty_OToole Posted December 2, 2015 Share Posted December 2, 2015 In those days it was a big problem to make an engine light enough for an airplane, that still had enough power to get it off the ground. There weren't that many occasions when you wanted less than full power. That type rotary engine had the crankshaft bolted to the air frame and the cylinders spun around like a fan. One problem with this design was inertia. It had a great flywheel effect, without the weight of a flywheel, but it also made the plan turn to the right a lot easier than to the left. If you weren't careful it was easy to crash on takeoff and in a dog fight made it easy to predict which way you were going to turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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