The Argus 70 hp
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
, aka Argus Type I (in common with the
Argus 50 hp
The Argus 50 hp aircraft engine, from 1909 was a four-cylinder, water cooled inline engine built by the German Argus Motoren company.
Design and development
The Argus 50 hp aircraft engine was developed by Argus Motoren around 1909 b ...
and not As I) from 1911 was a four-cylinder, water cooled inline engine built by the German
Argus Motoren
''Argus Motoren'' was a German manufacturing firm known for their series of small inverted-V engines and the Argus As 014 pulsejet for the V-1 flying bomb.
History
Started in Berlin in 1906 as a subsidiary of Henri Jeannin's automobile busines ...
company.
The engine also was license produced in France by
Automobiles Rossel and sold in France under the brand names 'Aviatik' and 'Aviatic-Rossel' by
Louis Clément, the local sales representative of the
Automobil und Aviatik AG.
[Flugsport 1/1912, pp. 14–15]
Design and development
The Argus 70 hp engine had a bore and stroke of and was rated at 1,250 rpm.
[Angle, 1921, p. 49, listed as 'Type I with 70 hp']
The engine design evolved from the earlier
Argus 50 hp
The Argus 50 hp aircraft engine, from 1909 was a four-cylinder, water cooled inline engine built by the German Argus Motoren company.
Design and development
The Argus 50 hp aircraft engine was developed by Argus Motoren around 1909 b ...
engines with the same bore and stroke, with the main change being the use of
overhead valve
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...
s instead of
side valves.
The engine can already be found in a 1911 brochure of the
Automobil und Aviatik AG.
[''Aviatik-Flugzeuge'', 1911, pp. 18-20 (see also Krzyzan, Steinle; 1989, pp. 86-88)]
The engine cylinders were of cast iron, cast in pairs of two cylinders, with the cooling jackets integral in the casting.
There were two overhead valves per cylinder, which were operated via
pushrods
A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...
and
rocker arm
In the context of an internal combustion engine, a rocker arm is a valvetrain component that typically transfers the motion of a pushrod to the corresponding intake/exhaust valve.
Rocker arms in automobiles are typically made from stamped steel ...
s from the
camshaft
A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion. Camshafts are used in piston engines (to operate the intake and exhaust valves), mechanically controlled ignition systems ...
on the left side of the engine.
The intake valves were oriented to the center of each cylinder pair, and their intake ducts were conjoined within the casting into a single external port facing to the left side of the engine.
The intake manifold was made of cast aluminum and a single
Cudell-G.A.-carburettor was installed.
The crankcase was made of aluminum and cast in separate upper and lower half parts, with the lower half having four mounting arms cast into it.
Each cylinder pair was fixated to the crankcase by six bolts.
The crankshaft was supported by two outer ball bearings and one intermediate plain bearing.
The camshaft was driven from the crankshaft by spur gears at the control end.
The engine had one or two
spark plug
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 ...
s per cylinder and a single
Bosch-magneto located at the control side of the engine, driven from the crankshaft via an intermediate spur gear.
There was no oil pump installed and the lubrication was done solely by
splash
Splash or Splash! or The Splash may refer to:
Common meanings
* Splash (fluid mechanics), sudden disturbances on the surface of water
Entertainment
* ''Splash'' (film), a 1984 fantasy film starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah
** ''Splash, Too'' ...
.
The coolant was circulated by a centrifugal water pump which was installed on the carburettor side and driven from the camshaft gear.
In October 1911 the engine has been evaluated in a French contest for aviation engines, where it produced on average at 1,248 rpm.
In 1912 the engine also competed the
Kaiserpreis The Kaiserpreis (german: Emperor's Prize) auto race, named after Emperor Wilhelm II, was held in 1907. Like his brother's Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt held from 1908 to 1911, it was a precursor to the German Grand Prix.
As Camille Jenatzy had won the Gordo ...
aircraft engine contest, where it produced on average at 1,342 rpm.
Applications
*
Friedrichshafen FF.4
*
Friedrichshafen FF.8
The Friedrichshafen FF.8 was a seaplane built in Germany in the early 1910s.
Specifications (FF.8)
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
{{aero-1910s-stub
Friedrichshafen aircraft
Floatplanes ...
[Herris, 2016, p. 17]
Specifications
See also
References
Bibliography
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{{aeroengine-specs
1910s aircraft piston engines
Argus aircraft engines