Six cylinder Rotary Engine

[petertay]

Have any of you seen on YouTube an ad for a kit to build a miniature six-cylinder rotary engine? The ad shows a very dramatic model with the pistons going back and forth. Then shows how the parts get broken out of an aluminum pad prior to assembly. It was about $80 with free shipping. The company is called Alghabet. They did respond with an email acknowledging my order, then nothing more. There is a link on the email the track the package, but that link is a dead end. I suspect I got scammed, so I’m asking if anyone else knows anything.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Have any of you seen on YouTube an ad for a kit to build a miniature six-cylinder rotary engine? The ad shows a very dramatic model with the pistons going back and forth. Then shows how the parts get broken out of an aluminum pad prior to assembly. It was about $80 with free shipping. The company is called Alghabet. They did respond with an email acknowledging my order, then nothing more. There is a link on the email the track the package, but that link is a dead end. I suspect I got scammed, so I’m asking if anyone else knows anything.

This doesn't help you any, but don't you specifically mean radial engine? Rotary to me is the "Wankel" style. Radial engines baffle me. There is a "master" cylinder, or connecting rod. Seems like radials have an odd number of cylinders per bank. So is a 6 cylinder even possible?

 

[gregm]

A quick google search of the name alghabet comes back as being a scam company. It looks like you are out $80, I hope that is all they manage to get out of you.

 

[buzzinduzzin]

4 stroke cycle radials have to be odd numbers but a 2 stroke can have even or odd

 

[Athol Carr]

The rotary aircraft engines disappeared after the first world war, they had reached the development limits in terms of horsepower per cylinder and bigger cylinders meant that the rotating mass became too large for use in aircraft (check for Gnome, Clerget, Bentley, Le Rhone) Most were two stroke and had only one speed, flat out, 'blipped' the ignition to reduce power for landing.

 

[moresmoke]

Contact your credit card co. They can reverse the charge and get your money back.

 

[Athol Carr]

Le Rhone Rotary engine as used in Sopwith Camel fighter. Propeller rotates with engine, crankshaft fixed to engine mount on front of fuselage.
Had a mixture controller but not a carburettor as we know them today. Pilot could control mixture to give maximum power. Two stroke, so Castor oil mixed with petrol.

 

[petertay]

Thanks moresmoke For the suggestion. I did now dispute the charge.

 

[timcasbolt]

This doesn't help you any, but don't you specifically mean radial engine? Rotary to me is the "Wankel" style. Radial engines baffle me. There is a "master" cylinder, or connecting rod. Seems like radials have an odd number of cylinders per bank. So is a 6 cylinder even possible?

I was wondering about that. There's no pistons in a rotary engine. It works more like a gerotor pump.

 

[Russ from MN]

4 stroke cycle radials have to be odd numbers but a 2 stroke can have even or odd

This probably was the largest radial engine ever built, 8 of them powered the Spruce Goose, we toured it when it was in Long Beach, a great display. 4 rows of 7 cylinders each! To stand next to one of those engines is a mechanics dream!
Powerplant: 8 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,000 hp

 

[used red MN]

This probably was the largest radial engine ever built, 8 of them powered the Spruce Goose, we toured it when it was in Long Beach, a great display. 4 rows of 7 cylinders each! To stand next to one of those engines is a mechanics dream!
Powerplant: 8 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,000 hp

I didn’t think that there was appropriate research or knowledge acquired to make the statement that radial engines were being phased out after WWI. If they would have said WWII it probably would have been a more correct statement.
Edit: I made a correction to this reply in my reply 12.

 

[used red MN]

This doesn't help you any, but don't you specifically mean radial engine? Rotary to me is the "Wankel" style. Radial engines baffle me. There is a "master" cylinder, or connecting rod. Seems like radials have an odd number of cylinders per bank. So is a 6 cylinder even possible?

Actually it looks like he was using proper terminology. A “rotary” aircraft engine spins the cylinders and pistons along with the propeller. The crankshaft is mounted to the airframe and stays stationary. So poster Carr’s reply about the engine design being phased out after WWI is probably correct.

 

[Athol Carr]

This probably was the largest radial engine ever built, 8 of them powered the Spruce Goose, we toured it when it was in Long Beach, a great display. 4 rows of 7 cylinders each! To stand next to one of those engines is a mechanics dream!
Powerplant: 8 × Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major 28-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 3,000 hp

Anzani had a 200 HP 4 row 20 cylinder radial engine in 1913

Advertisement from July 1913
as far as known only fitted to one aircraft The Model L Flying boat seen here over Lower New York Bay in 1913

 

[RESLLS]

Radial engines are still in production. . Mostly used in aerobatic planes. Start at about 75 hp, up to 450 hp. A friend has one. Don't remember the the plane manufacturer, but its a fun ride. Been in it a couple times. Loops, rolls, stalls. Said he didn't do stuff like that with normal people in the rear seat, but that I wasn't normal. Plane is a 1991 or 1992 year. His was 150 hp 9 cyl. I believe a Rotec from Australia.

 

[MarkB_MI]

How long ago did you place your order? That slow boat from China can take awhile. Remember back when that thing we can't mention was winding down and people were freaking out because they were getting packs of unidentified seeds in the mail? It turned out they had actually ordered those seeds a year earlier and forgot about it.

Amazon does offer a few rotary engine kits, such as this one, if you're still interested. Radial engine kits seem to be more common.
Clerget rotary aircraft engine kit

For those still confused about 'rotary' versus 'radial' engines, rotary engines were the norm around the time of the first world war. Aircraft speeds were too slow to properly cool most air-cooled engines, so the solution was to rotate the engine to increase airflow. Gyroscopic and inertial forces from these engines made the planes that used them fairly treacherous to fly. Once designers figured out how to cool radial engines, the rotaries became obsolete; today you'll only find them in museums.

Bit of trivia: Howard Hughes crashed a rotary-engined plane while making Hell's Angels. Famed stunt pilot Paul Mantz refused to fly the maneuver Hughes wanted, so Howie flew it himself, not understanding the danger of that particular maneuver in a rotary-engined aircraft.

 

[4wdtom]

The rotary aircraft engines disappeared after the first world war, they had reached the development limits in terms of horsepower per cylinder and bigger cylinders meant that the rotating mass became too large for use in aircraft (check for Gnome, Clerget, Bentley, Le Rhone) Most were two stroke and had only one speed, flat out, 'blipped' the ignition to reduce power for landing.

B 29s and B 17s had rotary engines in WWII

 

[TerryfromSWIowa]

Saw an article in Custom Classic truck with a rotary installed in an old pick up.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

What sort of "dead end" did the tracking link take you to? There should be a code that works with USPS, UPS, or Fedex that is part of the link or shows on the page you opened.

International orders won't be trackable until they hit the USA. They may say something to the effect of "label created."

 

[MarkB_MI]

B 29s and B 17s had rotary engines in WWII

B 29s and B 17s had rotary engines in WWII

Radials, not rotaries. Check out the other posts in this thread.

 

[Bob NY]

This doesn't help you any, but don't you specifically mean radial engine? Rotary to me is the "Wankel" style. Radial engines baffle me. There is a "master" cylinder, or connecting rod. Seems like radials have an odd number of cylinders per bank. So is a 6 cylinder even possible?

You should visit the "Northeast Car Museum" in Norwich someday. They have an aviation room with cut-aways off radial engines, They also have a B-17 and a B-29 engine side by side. They both have 9 cylinders per ring.