![YorkMerlin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/YorkMerlin.JPG)
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
propulsion system
Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...
. Most aircraft engines are either
piston engines
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
or
gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
s, although a few have been
rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
powered and in recent years many small
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s have used
electric motor
An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...
s.
Manufacturing industry
In commercial aviation the major Western manufacturers of
turbofan
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
engines are
Pratt & Whitney
Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially airlines) and military aviat ...
(a subsidiary of
Raytheon Technologies
Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliz ...
),
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
,
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
, and
CFM International
CFM International is a 50/50 Franco-American joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines (formerly known as Snecma). It was formed to build and support the CFM56 series of turbofan engines. The company is the world’s leading s ...
(a joint venture of
Safran Aircraft Engines
Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (''Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation'') or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It ...
and General Electric). Russian manufacturers include the
United Engine Corporation
JSC United Engine Corporation (russian: Объединённая двигателестроительная корпорация) is a Russian state-owned company responsible for production of engines for military and civil aviation and space expl ...
,
Aviadvigatel
UEC-Aviadvigatel JSC (Russian: АО "ОДК-Авиадвигатель", lit. Aeroengine) is a Russian developer and builder of aircraft engines, most notably jet engines for commercial aircraft. Based at the Perm Engine Plant, its products power ...
and
Klimov
The JSC Klimov (or Joint Stock Company Klimov) presently manufactures internationally certified gas turbine engines, main gearboxes and accessory drive gearboxes for transport aircraft.
Originally established as ''Kirill Klimov Experimental De ...
.
Aeroengine Corporation of China
Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) is a Chinese state-owned aerospace manufacturer focused on the design and development of aeroengine and related technology. The company was established on August 28, 2016. At launch, AECC was to be capital ...
was formed in 2016 with the merger of several smaller companies.
The largest manufacturer of
turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engines for
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
is Pratt & Whitney.
General Electric announced in 2015 entrance into the market.
Development history
![Wright Vertical Four-Cylinder Engine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Wright_Vertical_Four-Cylinder_Engine.jpg)
* 1848:
John Stringfellow
John Stringfellow (1799 – 13 December 1883) was a British early aeronautical inventor, known for his work on the aerial steam carriage with William Samuel Henson.
Life
Stringfellow was born in Attercliffe, England to Martha ée Gil ...
made a steam engine for a 10-foot wingspan model aircraft which achieved the first powered flight, albeit with negligible payload.
* 1903:
Charlie Taylor built an
inline engine, mostly of aluminum, for the
Wright Flyer
The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown b ...
(12 horsepower).
* 1903:
Manly-Balzer engine sets standards for later
radial engine
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 ca ...
s.
* 1906:
Léon Levavasseur produces a successful water-cooled
V8 engine
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...
for aircraft use.
* 1908:
René Lorin
René Lorin (24 March 1877 – 16 January 1933) was a French aerospace engineer and inventor of the ramjet.
In 1908 Lorin patented the first subsonic ramjet design. He published the principles of a ramjet in articles in the journal ''L'Aérophile ...
patents a design for the
ramjet engine.
* 1908:
Louis Seguin designed the
Gnome Omega
The Gnome 7 Omega (commonly called the Gnome 50 hp) is a French seven-cylinder, air-cooled aero engine produced by Gnome et Rhône. It was shown at the Paris Aero Salon held in December 1908 and was first flown in 1909. It was the world's f ...
, the world's first
rotary engine
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and i ...
to be produced in quantity. In 1909 a Gnome powered
Farman III
The Farman III, also known as the Henry Farman 1909 biplane, was an early French aircraft designed and built by Henry Farman[Grande Semaine d'Aviation
The ''Grande Semaine d'Aviation de la Champagne'' was an 8-day aviation meeting held near Reims in France in 1909, so-named because it was sponsored by the major local champagne growers. It is celebrated as the first international public flying e ...]
'' setting a world record for endurance of .
* 1910:
Coandă-1910
The Coandă-1910, designed by Romanian inventor Henri Coandă, was an unconventional sesquiplane aircraft powered by a ducted fan. Called the "turbo-propulseur" by Coandă, its experimental engine consisted of a conventional piston engine dri ...
, an unsuccessful
ducted fan
In aeronautics, a ducted fan is a thrust-generating mechanical fan or propeller mounted within a cylindrical duct or shroud. Other terms include ducted propeller or shrouded propeller. When used in vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) applicatio ...
aircraft exhibited at Paris Aero Salon, powered by a piston engine. The aircraft never flew, but a patent was filed for routing exhaust gases into the duct to augment thrust.
* 1914:
Auguste Rateau
Auguste Rateau (13 October 1863 – 13 January 1930) was an engineer and industrialist born in Royan, France, specializing in turbines.
Biography
After studies, first at the École Polytechnique and then at the École des Mines de Paris, he beg ...
suggests using exhaust-powered compressor – a
turbocharger
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...
– to improve high-altitude performance;
[ not accepted after the tests
* 1917-18: The Idflieg-numbered R.30/16 example of the Imperial German '']Luftstreitkräfte
The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Force)—known before October 1916 as (Flyer Troops)—was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-language sources it is usually referred to as the Imperial German Air Service, alt ...
's'' Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI
The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI was a four-engined Imperial Germany, German biplane strategic bomber of World War I, and the only ''Riesenflugzeug'' ("giant aircraft") design built in any quantity.Gray, P and Thetford, O ''German Aircraft of the First ...
heavy bomber becomes the earliest known supercharger-equipped aircraft to fly, with a Mercedes D.II
The Mercedes D.II was a six-cylinder, SOHC valvetrain liquid-cooled inline aircraft engine built by Daimler during the early stages of World War I. Producing about 110 to 120 hp, it was at the low-end of the power range of contemporary eng ...
straight-six engine in the central fuselage driving a Brown-Boveri mechanical supercharger for the R.30/16's four Mercedes D.IVa engines.
* 1918: Sanford Alexander Moss
Sanford Alexander Moss (August 23, 1872 – November 10, 1946) was an American aviation engineer, who was the first to use a turbocharger on an aircraft engine.
Life and career
Sanford Moss was born 1872 in San Francisco, California to Ernest ...
picks up Rateau's idea and creates the first successful turbocharger
* 1926: Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar
The Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar was an aircraft engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. The Jaguar was a petrol-fuelled air-cooled 14-cylinder two-row radial engine design. The Jaguar III was first used in 1923, followed in 1925 by the Jaguar ...
IV (S), the first series-produced supercharged engine for aircraft use;[The world's first series-produced cars with superchargers came earlier than aircraft. These were Mercedes 6/25/40 hp and Mercedes 10/40/65 hp, both models introduced in 1921 and used Roots superchargers. ] two-row radial with a gear-driven centrifugal supercharger A centrifugal supercharger is a specialized type of supercharger that makes use of centrifugal force in order to increase the manifold air pressure, MAP. An increased MAP allows the engine to burn more fuel, which results in an increased power outp ...
.
* 1930: Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for ...
submitted his first patent for a turbojet engine
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
.
* June 1939: Heinkel He 176
The Heinkel He 176 was a German rocket-powered aircraft. It was the world's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fueled rocket, making its first powered flight on 20 June 1939 with Erich Warsitz at the controls. It was a private ...
is the first successful aircraft to fly powered solely by a liquid-fueled rocket engine.
* August 1939: Heinkel HeS 3
The Heinkel HeS 3 (HeS - ''Heinkel Strahltriebwerke'') was the world's first operational jet engine to power an aircraft. Designed by Hans von Ohain while working at Heinkel, the engine first flew as the primary power of the Heinkel He 178, pilote ...
turbojet propels the pioneering German Heinkel He 178
The Heinkel He 178 was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was the world's first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine.
The He 178 was developed to test the jet propul ...
aircraft.
* 1940: Jendrassik Cs-1
The Jendrassik Cs-1 was the world's first working turboprop engine. It was designed by Hungarian engineer György Jendrassik in 1937, and was intended to power a Hungarian twin-engine heavy fighter, the RMI-1.
Design and development
Followin ...
, the world's first run of a turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engine. It is not put into service.
* 1943 Daimler-Benz DB 670
The Daimler-Benz DB 007, ( RLM (''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'' - Reich Air Ministry) designation ZTL 109-007, company designation ZTL6001), was an early German jet engine design stemming from design work carried out by Karl Leist from 1939. This ...
, first turbofan runs
* 1944: Messerschmitt Me 163
The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft primarily designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It is the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft in history as well as th ...
B ''Komet'', the world's first rocket-propelled combat aircraft deployed.
* 1945: First turboprop-powered aircraft flies, a modified Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...
with two Rolls-Royce Trent
The Rolls-Royce Trent is a family of high-bypass turbofans produced by Rolls-Royce Holdings, Rolls-Royce.
It continues the Turbofan#Three-spool, three spool architecture of the Rolls-Royce RB211, RB211 with a maximum thrust ranging from .
L ...
engines.
* 1947: Bell X-1
The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Be ...
rocket-propelled aircraft exceeds the speed of sound.
* 1948: 100 shp 782, the first turboshaft
A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...
engine to be applied to aircraft use; in 1950 used to develop the larger Turbomeca Artouste
The Turbomeca Artouste is an early French turboshaft engine, first run in 1947. Originally conceived as an auxiliary power unit (APU), it was soon adapted to aircraft propulsion, and found a niche as a powerplant for turboshaft-driven helicopter ...
.
* 1949: Leduc 010
The Leduc 0.10 was a research aircraft built in France, one of the world's first aircraft to fly powered solely by a ramjet.
Design and development
Designed by René Leduc in 1938, it was built at the Breguet Aviation factory after a protracted, ...
, the world's first ramjet
A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...
-powered aircraft flight.
* 1950: Rolls-Royce Conway
The Rolls-Royce RB.80 Conway was the first turbofan engine to enter service. Development started at Rolls-Royce in the 1940s, but the design was used only briefly, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before other turbofan designs replaced it. H ...
, the world's first production turbofan
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
, enters service.
* 1968: General Electric TF39
The General Electric TF39 was a high-bypass turbofan engine that was developed to power the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. The TF39 was the first high-power, high-bypass jet engine developed. The TF39 was further developed into the CF6 series of engines, a ...
high bypass turbofan
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
enters service delivering greater thrust and much better efficiency.
* 2002: HyShot
HyShot is a research project of The University of Queensland, Australiabr>Centre for Hypersonics to demonstrate the possibility of supersonic combustion under flight conditions using two scramjet engines, one designed by The University of Queensla ...
scramjet
A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to compress the incoming air forcefully ...
flew in dive.
* 2004: NASA X-43
The NASA X-43 was an experimental unmanned hypersonic aircraft with multiple planned scale variations meant to test various aspects of hypersonic flight. It was part of the X-plane series and specifically of NASA's Hyper-X program. It set seve ...
, the first scramjet to maintain altitude.
* 2020: Pipistrel E-811
Pipistrel d.o.o Ajdovščina is a Slovenian light aircraft manufacturer established in 1989Or 1989... --> by Ivo Boscarol and based in Ajdovščina. Its facilities are located in Ajdovščina, Slovenia, and near the town of Gorizia, Italy. By Ma ...
is the first electric aircraft engine to be awarded a type certificate by EASA
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monitori ...
. It powers the Pipistrel Velis Electro
The Pipistrel Velis Electro is a Slovenian light aircraft, designed and produced by Pipistrel of Ajdovščina. The aircraft was EASA CS-LSA fully electric type certified in June 2020 and it is intended primarily for the training aircraft role, ...
, the first fully electric EASA type-certified aeroplane.
Shaft engines
Reciprocating (piston) engines
In-line engine
In this entry, for clarity, the term "inline engine" refers only to engines with a single row of cylinders, as used in automotive language, but in aviation terms, the phrase "inline engine" also covers V-type and opposed engines (as described below), and is not limited to engines with a single row of cylinders. This is typically to differentiate them from radial engine
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 ca ...
s. A straight engine typically has an even number of cylinders, but there are instances of three- and five-cylinder engines. The greatest advantage of an inline engine is that it allows the aircraft to be designed with a low frontal area to minimize drag. If the engine crankshaft is located above the cylinders, it is called an inverted inline engine: this allows the propeller to be mounted high up to increase ground clearance, enabling shorter landing gear. The disadvantages of an inline engine include a poor power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measuremen ...
, because the crankcase and crankshaft are long and thus heavy. An in-line engine may be either air-cooled or liquid-cooled, but liquid-cooling is more common because it is difficult to get enough air-flow to cool the rear cylinders directly. Inline engines were common in early aircraft; one was used in the Wright Flyer
The ''Wright Flyer'' (also known as the ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Flyer'' I or the 1903 ''Flyer'') made the first sustained flight by a manned heavier-than-air powered and controlled aircraft—an airplane—on December 17, 1903. Invented and flown b ...
, the aircraft that made the first controlled powered flight. However, the inherent disadvantages of the design soon became apparent, and the inline design was abandoned, becoming a rarity in modern aviation.
''For other configurations of aviation inline engine, such as X-engines, U-engines, H-engines, etc., see Inline engine (aeronautics)
In aviation, an inline engine is a reciprocating engine with banks of cylinders, one behind another, rather than rows of cylinders, with each bank having any number of cylinders, although more than six is uncommon. The major reciprocating-engine ...
.''
V-type engine
Cylinders in this engine are arranged in two in-line banks, typically tilted 60–90 degrees apart from each other and driving a common crankshaft. The vast majority of V engines are water-cooled. The V design provides a higher power-to-weight ratio than an inline engine, while still providing a small frontal area. Perhaps the most famous example of this design is the legendary Rolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later ...
engine, a 27-litre (1649 in3) 60° V12 engine used in, among others, the Spitfires
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
that played a major role in the Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
.
Horizontally opposed engine
A horizontally opposed engine, also called a flat or boxer engine, has two banks of cylinders on opposite sides of a centrally located crankcase. The engine is either air-cooled or liquid-cooled, but air-cooled versions predominate. Opposed engines are mounted with the crankshaft horizontal in airplane
An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...
s, but may be mounted with the crankshaft vertical in helicopters
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
. Due to the cylinder layout, reciprocating forces tend to cancel, resulting in a smooth running engine. Opposed-type engines have high power-to-weight ratios because they have a comparatively small, lightweight crankcase. In addition, the compact cylinder arrangement reduces the engine's frontal area and allows a streamlined installation that minimizes aerodynamic drag. These engines always have an even number of cylinders, since a cylinder on one side of the crankcase “opposes” a cylinder on the other side.
Opposed, air-cooled four- and six-cylinder piston engines are by far the most common engines used in small general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
aircraft requiring up to per engine. Aircraft that require more than per engine tend to be powered by turbine engines
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
.
H configuration engine
An H configuration engine is essentially a pair of horizontally opposed engines placed together, with the two crankshafts geared together.
Radial engine
This type of engine has one or more rows of cylinders arranged around a centrally located crankcase
In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block.
Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel/a ...
. Each row generally has an odd number of cylinders to produce smooth operation. A radial engine has only one crank throw per row and a relatively small crankcase, resulting in a favorable power-to-weight ratio
Power-to-weight ratio (PWR, also called specific power, or power-to-mass ratio) is a calculation commonly applied to engines and mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another. Power-to-weight ratio is a measuremen ...
. Because the cylinder arrangement exposes a large amount of the engine's heat-radiating surfaces to the air and tends to cancel reciprocating forces, radials tend to cool evenly and run smoothly. The lower cylinders, which are under the crankcase, may collect oil when the engine has been stopped for an extended period. If this oil is not cleared from the cylinders prior to starting the engine, serious damage due to hydrostatic lock may occur.
Most radial engines have the cylinders arranged evenly around the crankshaft, although some early engines, sometimes called semi-radials or fan configuration engines, had an uneven arrangement. The best known engine of this type is the Anzani engine, which was fitted to the Bleriot XI used for the first flight across the English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...
in 1909. This arrangement had the drawback of needing a heavy counterbalance for the crankshaft, but was used to avoid the spark plugs
A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...
oiling up.
In military aircraft designs, the large frontal area of the engine acted as an extra layer of armor for the pilot. Also air-cooled engines, without vulnerable radiators, are slightly less prone to battle damage, and on occasion would continue running even with one or more cylinders shot away. However, the large frontal area also resulted in an aircraft with an aerodynamically inefficient increased frontal area.
Rotary engine
Rotary engines have the cylinders in a circle around the crankcase, as in a radial engine, (see above), but the crankshaft is fixed to the airframe and the propeller is fixed to the engine case, so that the crankcase and cylinders rotate. The advantage of this arrangement is that a satisfactory flow of cooling air is maintained even at low airspeeds, retaining the weight advantage and simplicity of a conventional air-cooled engine without one of their major drawbacks.
The first practical rotary engine was the Gnome Omega
The Gnome 7 Omega (commonly called the Gnome 50 hp) is a French seven-cylinder, air-cooled aero engine produced by Gnome et Rhône. It was shown at the Paris Aero Salon held in December 1908 and was first flown in 1909. It was the world's f ...
designed by the Seguin brothers and first flown in 1909. Its relative reliability and good power to weight ratio changed aviation dramatically. Before the first World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
most speed records were gained using Gnome-engined aircraft, and in the early years of the war rotary engines were dominant in aircraft types for which speed and agility were paramount. To increase power, engines with two rows of cylinders were built.
However, the gyroscopic effects of the heavy rotating engine produced handling problems in aircraft and the engines also consumed large amounts of oil since they used total loss lubrication, the oil being mixed with the fuel and ejected with the exhaust gases. Castor oil
Castor oil is a vegetable oil pressed from castor beans.
It is a colourless or pale yellow liquid with a distinct taste and odor. Its boiling point is and its density is 0.961 g/cm3. It includes a mixture of triglycerides in which about ...
was used for lubrication, since it is not soluble in petrol, and the resultant fumes were nauseating to the pilots. Engine designers had always been aware of the many limitations of the rotary engine so when the static style engines became more reliable and gave better specific weights and fuel consumption, the days of the rotary engine were numbered.
Wankel engine
The Wankel
Wankel may refer to:
* Wankel engine, a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design instead of reciprocating pistons
* Wankel AG, a German company that produces Wankel engines for ultralight aircraft and racing cars
People ...
is a type of rotary engine. The Wankel engine
The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and desi ...
is about one half the weight and size of a traditional four-stroke cycle
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...
piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
of equal power output, and much lower in complexity. In an aircraft application, the power-to-weight ratio is very important, making the Wankel engine a good choice. Because the engine is typically constructed with an aluminium housing and a steel rotor, and aluminium expands more than steel when heated, a Wankel engine does not seize when overheated, unlike a piston engine. This is an important safety factor for aeronautical use. Considerable development of these designs started after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but at the time the aircraft industry favored the use of turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
engines. It was believed that turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
or turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engines could power all aircraft, from the largest to smallest designs. The Wankel engine did not find many applications in aircraft, but was used by Mazda
, commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan.
In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
in a popular line of sports cars
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
. The French company Citroën
Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...
had developed Wankel powered helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
in 1970's.
In modern times the Wankel engine has been used in motor glider
A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight ...
s where the compactness, light weight, and smoothness are crucially important.
The now-defunct Staverton-based firm MidWest designed and produced single- and twin-rotor aero engines, the MidWest AE series
The MidWest AE series are lightweight, liquid-cooled, single- and twin-rotor Wankel engines, with dual ignition, designed for light aircraft. They were produced by Mid-West Engines Ltd. at Staverton Airport, Gloucestershire, UK.
History
This en ...
. These engines were developed from the motor in the Norton Classic
The Norton Classic is a rotary-engined motorcycle built in 1987 by Norton as a special edition of just 100 machines.
Engine development
The Classic used an air-cooled twin-rotor Wankel engine that had been developed by David Garside at BSA's ...
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
. The twin-rotor version was fitted into ARV Super2
The ARV Super2 (''Air Recreational Vehicle'') is a British two-seat light aircraft with strut-braced shoulder wings and tricycle landing gear. Designed by Bruce Giddings, the Super2 was available either factory-built or as a kit. It was in ...
s and the Rutan Quickie
The Rutan Quickie is a lightweight single-seat taildragger aircraft of composite construction, configured with tandem wings.
The Quickie was primarily designed by Burt Rutan as a low-powered, highly efficient kit-plane. Its tandem wing desig ...
. The single-rotor engine was put into a Chevvron motor glider and into the Schleicher ASH motor-gliders. After the demise of MidWest, all rights were sold to Diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
of Austria, who have since developed a MkII version of the engine.
As a cost-effective alternative to certified aircraft engines some Wankel engines, removed from automobiles and converted to aviation use, have been fitted in homebuilt experimental aircraft
An experimental aircraft is an aircraft intended for testing new aerospace technologies and design concepts.
The term ''research aircraft'' or ''testbed aircraft'', by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, ...
. Mazda units with outputs ranging from to can be a fraction of the cost of traditional engines. Such conversions first took place in the early 1970s; and as of 10 December 2006 the National Transportation Safety Board
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and incid ...
has only seven reports of incidents involving aircraft with Mazda engines, and none of these is of a failure due to design or manufacturing flaws.
Combustion cycles
The most common combustion cycle for aero engines is the four-stroke with spark ignition. Two-stroke spark ignition has also been used for small engines, while the compression-ignition Diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...
is seldom used.
Starting in the 1930s attempts were made to produce a practical aircraft diesel engine
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. C ...
. In general, Diesel engines are more reliable and much better suited to running for long periods of time at medium power settings. The lightweight alloys of the 1930s were not up to the task of handling the much higher compression ratio
The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values.
A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...
s of diesel engines, so they generally had poor power-to-weight ratios and were uncommon for that reason, although the Clerget 14F Diesel radial engine (1939) has the same power to weight ratio as a gasoline radial. Improvements in Diesel technology in automobiles (leading to much better power-weight ratios), the Diesel's much better fuel efficiency and the high relative taxation of AVGAS compared to Jet A1 in Europe have all seen a revival of interest in the use of diesels for aircraft. Thielert
Technify Motors GmbH is an aircraft Diesel engine manufacturer based in Sankt Egidien, Germany. In July 2013, Chinese state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) acquired the aircraft Diesel engine designs and manufacturing assets ...
Aircraft Engines converted Mercedes Diesel automotive engines, certified them for aircraft use, and became an OEM provider to Diamond Aviation for their light twin. Financial problems have plagued Thielert, so Diamond's affiliate — Austro Engine — developed the new AE300 turbodiesel, also based on a Mercedes engine. Competing new Diesel engines may bring fuel efficiency and lead-free emissions to small aircraft, representing the biggest change in light aircraft engines in decades.
Power turbines
Turboprop
While military fighters require very high speeds, many civil airplanes do not. Yet, civil aircraft designers wanted to benefit from the high power and low maintenance that a gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
engine offered. Thus was born the idea to mate a turbine engine to a traditional propeller. Because gas turbines optimally spin at high speed, a turboprop features a gearbox
Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differe ...
to lower the speed of the shaft so that the propeller tips don't reach supersonic speeds. Often the turbines that drive the propeller are separate from the rest of the rotating components so that they can rotate at their own best speed (referred to as a free-turbine engine). A turboprop is very efficient when operated within the realm of cruise speeds it was designed for, which is typically 200 to 400 mph (320 to 640 km/h).
Turboshaft
Turboshaft engines are used primarily for helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s and auxiliary power unit
An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115&n ...
s. A turboshaft engine is similar to a turboprop in principle, but in a turboprop the propeller is supported by the engine and the engine is bolted to the airframe
The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system.
Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...
: in a turboshaft, the engine does not provide any direct physical support to the helicopter's rotors. The rotor is connected to a transmission which is bolted to the airframe, and the turboshaft engine drives the transmission. The distinction is seen by some as slim, as in some cases aircraft companies make both turboprop and turboshaft engines based on the same design.
Electric power
A number of electrically powered aircraft, such as the QinetiQ Zephyr
The Airbus Zephyr is a series of lightweight solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The latest model is a high-altitude platform station capable of flying at for months at a time without fueling. It has a wingspan of and weighs .
Deve ...
, have been designed since the 1960s. Some are used as military drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
s. In France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in late 2007, a conventional light aircraft powered by an 18 kW electric motor using lithium polymer batteries was flown, covering more than , the first electric airplane to receive a certificate of airworthiness
A standard certificate of airworthiness is a permit for commercial passenger or cargo operation, issued for an aircraft by the civil aviation authority in the state/nation in which the aircraft is registered. For other aircraft such as crop-spraye ...
.[.]
On 18 May 2020, the Pipistrel E-811
Pipistrel d.o.o Ajdovščina is a Slovenian light aircraft manufacturer established in 1989Or 1989... --> by Ivo Boscarol and based in Ajdovščina. Its facilities are located in Ajdovščina, Slovenia, and near the town of Gorizia, Italy. By Ma ...
was the first electric aircraft engine to be awarded a type certificate
A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). It confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production, is in compliance with applica ...
by EASA
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is an agency of the European Union (EU) with responsibility for civil aviation safety. It carries out certification, regulation and standardisation and also performs investigation and monitori ...
for use in general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
. The E-811 powers the Pipistrel Velis Electro
The Pipistrel Velis Electro is a Slovenian light aircraft, designed and produced by Pipistrel of Ajdovščina. The aircraft was EASA CS-LSA fully electric type certified in June 2020 and it is intended primarily for the training aircraft role, ...
.
Limited experiments with solar electric
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. propulsion have been performed, notably the manned Solar Challenger
The Solar Challenger was a solar-powered electric aircraft designed by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. The aircraft was designed as an improvement on the Gossamer Penguin, which in turn was a solar-powered variant of the human-powered Gossamer ...
and Solar Impulse
Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project's two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss ...
and the unmanned NASA Pathfinder
The NASA Pathfinder and NASA Pathfinder Plus were the first two aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Envi ...
aircraft.
Many big companies, such as Siemens, are developing high performance electric engines for aircraft use, also, SAE shows new developments in elements as pure Copper core electric motors with a better efficiency. A hybrid system as emergency back-up and for added power in take-off is offered for sale by Axter Aerospace, Madrid, Spain
Small multicopter
A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex ...
UAVs are almost always powered by electric motors.
Reaction engines
Reaction engines generate the thrust
Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that syst ...
to propel an aircraft by ejecting the exhaust gases at high velocity from the engine, the resultant reaction of forces driving the aircraft forwards. The most common reaction propulsion engines flown are turbojets, turbofans and rockets. Other types such as pulsejet
300px, Diagram of a pulsejet
A pulsejet engine (or pulse jet) is a type of jet engine in which combustion occurs in pulses. A pulsejet engine can be made with few or no moving parts, and is capable of running statically (i.e. it does not need ...
s, ramjets
A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an ass ...
, scramjet
A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to compress the incoming air forcefully ...
s and pulse detonation engines have also flown. In jet engines the oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
necessary for fuel combustion comes from the air, while rockets carry oxygen in some form as part of the fuel load, permitting their use in space.
Jet turbines
Turbojet
A turbojet is a type of gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
engine that was originally developed for military fighters
Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to:
Combat and warfare
* Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict
* Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplan ...
during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. A turbojet is the simplest of all aircraft gas turbines. It consists of a compressor to draw air in and compress it, a combustion section where fuel is added and ignited, one or more turbines that extract power from the expanding exhaust gases to drive the compressor, and an exhaust nozzle that accelerates the exhaust gases out the back of the engine to create thrust. When turbojets were introduced, the top speed of fighter aircraft equipped with them was at least 100 miles per hour faster than competing piston-driven aircraft. In the years after the war, the drawbacks of the turbojet gradually became apparent. Below about Mach 2, turbojets are very fuel inefficient and create tremendous amounts of noise. Early designs also respond very slowly to power changes, a fact that killed many experienced pilots when they attempted the transition to jets. These drawbacks eventually led to the downfall of the pure turbojet, and only a handful of types are still in production. The last airliner that used turbojets was the Concorde
The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).
Studies started in 1954, and France an ...
, whose Mach 2 airspeed permitted the engine to be highly efficient.
Turbofan
A turbofan engine is much the same as a turbojet, but with an enlarged fan at the front that provides thrust in much the same way as a ducted propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
, resulting in improved fuel efficiency
Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, wh ...
. Though the fan creates thrust like a propeller, the surrounding duct frees it from many of the restrictions that limit propeller performance. This operation is a more efficient way to provide thrust than simply using the jet nozzle
A propelling nozzle is a nozzle that converts the internal energy of a working gas into propulsive force; it is the nozzle, which forms a jet, that separates a gas turbine, or gas generator, from a jet engine.
Propelling nozzles accelerate the av ...
alone, and turbofans are more efficient than propellers in the transsonic range of aircraft speeds and can operate in the supersonic
Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound ( Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C (68 °F) at sea level, this speed is approximately . Speeds greater than five times ...
realm. A turbofan typically has extra turbine stages to turn the fan. Turbofans were among the first engines to use multiple '' spools''—concentric shafts that are free to rotate at their own speed—to let the engine react more quickly to changing power requirements. Turbofans are coarsely split into low-bypass and high-bypass categories. Bypass air flows through the fan, but around the jet core, not mixing with fuel and burning. The ratio of this air to the amount of air flowing through the engine core is the bypass ratio. Low-bypass engines are preferred for military applications such as fighters due to high thrust-to-weight ratio, while high-bypass engines are preferred for civil use for good fuel efficiency and low noise. High-bypass turbofans are usually most efficient when the aircraft is traveling at 500 to 550 miles per hour (800 to 885 km/h), the cruise speed of most large airliners. Low-bypass turbofans can reach supersonic speeds, though normally only when fitted with afterburner
An afterburner (or reheat in British English) is an additional combustion component used on some jet engines, mostly those on military supersonic aircraft. Its purpose is to increase thrust, usually for supersonic flight, takeoff, and comba ...
s.
Pulse jets
Pulse jets are mechanically simple devices that—in a repeating cycle—draw air through a no-return valve at the front of the engine into a combustion chamber and ignite it. The combustion forces the exhaust gases out the back of the engine. It produces power as a series of pulses rather than as a steady output, hence the name. The only application of this type of engine was the German unmanned V1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug and in Germany a ...
of World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Though the same engines were also used experimentally for ersatz fighter aircraft, the extremely loud noise generated by the engines caused mechanical damage to the airframe that was sufficient to make the idea unworkable.
Rocket
A few aircraft have used rocket engines for main thrust or attitude control, notably the Bell X-1
The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Be ...
and North American X-15
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed an ...
.
Rocket engines are not used for most aircraft as the energy and propellant efficiency is very poor, but have been employed for short bursts of speed and takeoff. Where fuel/propellant efficiency is of lesser concern, rocket engines can be useful because they produce very large amounts of thrust and weigh very little.
Precooled jet engines
For very high supersonic/low hypersonic flight speeds, inserting a cooling system into the air duct of a hydrogen jet engine permits greater fuel injection at high speed and obviates the need for the duct to be made of refractory or actively cooled materials. This greatly improves the thrust/weight ratio of the engine at high speed.
It is thought that this design of engine could permit sufficient performance for antipodal flight at Mach 5, or even permit a single stage to orbit vehicle to be practical. The hybrid air-breathing SABRE rocket engine is a pre-cooled engine under development.
Piston-turbofan hybrid
At the April 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show
The ILA Berlin Air Show (German: Internationale Luft- und Raumfahrtausstellung (ILA)) combines a major trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries with a public airshow.
It is held every even year at the new Berlin ExpoCenter Airp ...
, Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
-based research institute :de:Bauhaus Luftfahrt presented a high-efficiency composite cycle engine for 2050, combining a geared turbofan
The geared turbofan is a type of turbofan aircraft engine, with a gearbox between the fan and the low pressure shaft to spin each at optimum angular velocities.
Technology
In a conventional turbofan, a single shaft (the "low-pressure" or LP sh ...
with a piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
core.
The 2.87 m diameter, 16-blade fan gives a 33.7 ultra-high bypass ratio
The bypass ratio (BPR) of a turbofan engine is the ratio between the mass flow rate of the bypass stream to the mass flow rate entering the core. A 10:1 bypass ratio, for example, means that 10 kg of air passes through the bypass duct for ev ...
, driven by a geared low-pressure turbine but the high-pressure compressor drive comes from a piston-engine with two 10 piston banks without a high-pressure turbine, increasing efficiency with non-stationary isochoric
Isochoric may refer to:
*cell-transitive, in geometry
*isochoric process
In thermodynamics, an isochoric process, also called a constant-volume process, an isovolumetric process, or an isometric process, is a thermodynamic process during which ...
-isobaric
Isobar may refer to:
* Isobar (meteorology), a line connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level on the maps.
* Isobaric process
In thermodynamics, an isobaric process is a type of thermodynamic process in which the pr ...
combustion for higher peak pressures and temperatures.
The 11,200 lb (49.7 kN) engine could power a 50-seat regional jet
A regional jet (RJ) is a jet-powered regional airliner with fewer than 100 seats. The first one was the Sud-Aviation Caravelle in 1959, followed by the widespread Yakovlev Yak-40, Fokker F-28, and BAe 146. The 1990s saw the emergence of th ...
.
Its cruise TSFC would be 11.5 g/kN/s (0.406 lb/lbf/hr) for an overall engine efficiency
Engine efficiency of thermal engines is the relationship between the total energy contained in the fuel, and the amount of energy used to perform useful work. There are two classifications of thermal engines-
#Internal combustion (gasoline, diesel ...
of 48.2%, for a burner temperature of , an overall pressure ratio
In aeronautical engineering, overall pressure ratio, or overall compression ratio, is the ratio of the stagnation pressure as measured at the front and rear of the compressor of a gas turbine engine. The terms ''compression ratio'' and ''pressure ...
of 38 and a peak pressure of .
Although engine weight increases by 30%, aircraft fuel consumption is reduced by 15%.
Sponsored by the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...
under Framework 7 project , Bauhaus Luftfahrt, MTU Aero Engines
MTU Aero Engines AG is a German aircraft engine manufacturer. MTU develops, manufactures and provides service support for military and civil aircraft engines. MTU Aero Engines was formerly known as MTU München.
History
While the Munich-based en ...
and GKN Aerospace
GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 an ...
presented the concept in 2015, raising the overall engine pressure ratio to over 100 for a 15.2% fuel burn reduction compared to 2025 engines.
Engine position numbering
On multi-engine aircraft, engine positions are numbered from left to right from the point of view of the pilot looking forward, so for example on a four-engine aircraft such as the Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
, engine No. 1 is on the left side, farthest from the fuselage, while engine No. 3 is on the right side nearest to the fuselage.
In the case of the twin-engine English Electric Lightning
The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...
, which has two fuselage-mounted jet engines one above the other, engine No. 1 is below and to the front of engine No. 2, which is above and behind.
In the Cessna 337 Skymaster
The Cessna Skymaster is an American twin-engine civil utility aircraft built in a push-pull configuration. Its engines are mounted in the nose and rear of its pod-style fuselage. Twin booms extend aft of the wings to the vertical stabilizers, ...
, a push-pull twin-engine airplane, engine No. 1 is the one at the front of the fuselage, while engine No. 2 is aft of the cabin.
Fuel
Aircraft reciprocating (piston) engines are typically designed to run on aviation gasoline
Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, whi ...
. Avgas has a higher octane rating than automotive gasoline
Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...
to allow higher compression ratio
The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values.
A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...
s, power output, and efficiency at higher altitudes. Currently the most common Avgas is 100LL. This refers to the octane rating
An octane rating, or octane number, is a standard measure of a fuel's ability to withstand compression in an internal combustion engine without detonating. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating ...
(100 octane) and the lead content (LL = low lead, relative to the historic levels of lead in pre-regulation Avgas).
Refineries blend Avgas with tetraethyllead
Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It is a fuel additive, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that al ...
(TEL) to achieve these high octane ratings, a practice that governments no longer permit for gasoline intended for road vehicles. The shrinking supply of TEL and the possibility of environmental legislation banning its use have made a search for replacement fuels for general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
aircraft a priority for pilots’ organizations.
Turbine engines and aircraft diesel engine
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. C ...
s burn various grades of jet fuel
Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...
. Jet fuel is a relatively less volatile petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
derivative based on kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
, but certified to strict aviation standards, with additional additives.
Model aircraft
A model aircraft is a small unmanned aircraft. Many are replicas of real aircraft. Model aircraft are divided into two basic groups: flying and non-flying. Non-flying models are also termed static, display, or shelf models.
Aircraft manufactur ...
typically use nitro engine
A nitro engine generally refers to an engine powered with a fuel that contains some portion (usually between 10% and 40%) of nitromethane mixed with methanol. Nitromethane is a highly combustible substance that is generally only used in very spec ...
s (also known as "glow engines" due to the use of a glow plug
A glowplug (alternatively spelled as glow plug or glow-plug) is a heating device used to aid in starting diesel engines. In cold weather, high-speed diesel engines can be difficult to start because the mass of the cylinder block and cylinder he ...
) powered by glow fuel
Glow fuel is a fuel source used in model engines – generally the same or similar fuels can be used in model airplanes, helicopters, cars and boats. Glow fuel can be burned by very simple two-stroke engines or by more complicated four-stroke engin ...
, a mixture of methanol
Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a ...
, nitromethane
Nitromethane, sometimes shortened to simply "nitro", is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest organic nitro compound. It is a polar liquid commonly used as a solvent in a variety of industrial applications such as in ...
, and lubricant. Electrically powered model airplanes and helicopters are also commercially available. Small multicopter
A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex ...
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s are almost always powered by electricity, but larger gasoline-powered designs are under development.
See also
* Aircraft diesel engine
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. C ...
* Aviation safety
Aviation safety is the study and practice of managing risks in aviation. This includes preventing aviation accidents and incidents through research, educating air travel personnel, passengers and the general public, as well as the design of airc ...
* Engine configuration
The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized.
Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...
* Federal Aviation Regulations
The Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs comprise Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety o ...
* Hyper engine
The hyper engine was a 1930s study project by the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) to develop a high-performance aircraft engine that would be equal to or better than the aircraft and engines then under development in Europe. The project goal ...
* List of aircraft engines
This is an alphabetical list of aircraft engines by manufacturer.
0–9 2si
*2si 215
*2si 230
* 2si 430
* 2si 460
*2si 500
* 2si 540
* 2si 690
3W
''Source: RMV''
*3W 106iB2
*3W-110
*3W-112
*3W-170
*3W-210
*3W-220
A
Abadal (Fr ...
* Model engine
A model engine is a small internal combustion engine typically used to power a radio-controlled aircraft, radio-controlled car, radio-controlled boat, free flight, control line aircraft, or ground-running tether car model.
Because of the s ...
* United States military aircraft engine designations The United States military aircraft engine designation system was introduced in 1926, originally for piston engines it was expanded in the 1947 to include a separate system for jet and rocket engines.
Piston engines
A piston engine designation has ...
Notes
References
External links
Aircraft Engines and Aircraft Engine Theory (includes links to diagrams)
The Aircraft Engine Historical Society
Jet Engine Specification Database
Aircraft Engine Efficiency: Comparison of Counter-rotating and Axial Aircraft LP Turbines
* ttp://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%200959.html "The Quest for Power"a 1954 ''Flight'' article by Bill Gunston
Bill Gunston (1 March 1927 – 1 June 2013) was a British aviation and military author. He flew with Britain's Royal Air Force from 1945 to 1948, and after pilot training became a flying instructor. He spent most of his adult life doing research ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aircraft Engine
Engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...