The Development of Fixed Radial Air-Cooled Engines 290055
COMPARISON by the author shows that the cost of aeronautic powerplants per horsepower is materially lower than that of ship powerplants, and that airplane reliability compares well with the safety of other modes of travel. Some of the advantages of radial air-cooled aeronautic engines are given, followed by a brief outline of their development, which was necessarily slow because of the novel mechanical problems involved in the connecting-rods, valve mechanism and lubrication.
The supercharger drive and the recently developed propeller reduction-gears of the Wasp engine are described, and the paper concludes with an outline of procedure in developing a new model of engine.
In the absence of Mr. Mead, the paper was presented by E. A. Rider, who answered the many questions propounded in the discussion. These have to do chiefly with supercharging, cooling problems, engine operation in flying upside down, and the use of a double ignition system.
