The Manly–Balzer was the first purpose-designed

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 ...

, built in 1901 for the

Langley Aerodrome The Langley Aerodrome was a pioneering but unsuccessful manned, tandem wing-configuration powered flying machine, designed at the close of the 19th century by Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley. The U.S. Army paid $50,000 for the ...

project. The engine was originally ordered from Stephen Balzer (1864–1940) in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, but his five-cylinder

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 ...

design failed to live up to its claims. Langley's chief assistant,

Charles Manly Charles Manly (May 13, 1795May 1, 1871) was a lawyer who served as the 31st governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1849 to 1851. He was the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office. After one two-year term, Manly was defea ...

, then reworked the engine to produce a design that held the record for

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 ...

for any engine for many years. Manly later worked for

Glenn Curtiss Glenn Hammond Curtiss (May 21, 1878 – July 23, 1930) was an American aviation and motorcycling pioneer, and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle racer and builder before moving on to motorcycles. As early ...

, and was one of the team-members who designed the mass-produced

Curtiss OX-5 The Curtiss OX-5 was an early V-8 American liquid-cooled aircraft engine built by Curtiss. It was the first American-designed aircraft engine to enter mass production, although it was considered obsolete when it did so in 1917.Smith, 1981, pa ...

Background

The problem with powering the Aerodrome had been known as early as 1898 when work on the person-carrying versions first started. At the time the gasoline engine was a fairly new invention, and no engine in the world had the needed performance. After a short search they decided to contract the development to one of the few engine builders in the area, New York's Stephen M. Balzer. Balzer was a Hungarian immigrant who had a mechanical bent and started designing various devices while working in the watch repair department in Tiffany's. He followed this with a night course in engineering, and struck out on his own to develop what would become New York's first car in 1894, a small four-wheel carriage powered by a three-cylinder

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 ...

of his design. Balzer was convinced he could build an engine to Langley's requirements by scaling up his existing design into a larger five-cylinder one. Langley gave him a contract in December 1898, and work started on the new design.

Engine development

The engine was completed fairly quickly, but proved to be underpowered, delivering compared to the Langley wanted. As would be rediscovered by many engineers after him, Balzer found that scaling up his existing design simply didn't work. Manly worked with him to try to improve the design, but by 1899 it was clear that it wasn't going to work any time soon. Balzer never gave up on the engine, and continued to work on it for years, eventually going bankrupt. Every engineer Manly met on a trip to Europe in 1900 told him the rotary design was hopeless. Manly eventually became convinced as well and started work on adapting one of the existing Balzer engines into a non-rotating

. The main concern was cooling, which he solved by welding a jacket to each cylinder and filling it with water. The results were promising, and the engine was soon delivering , double its previous output. This version was soon in place on a -scale model of the "Great Aerodrome", which flew successfully in 1901. Encouraged by this success, Manly started scaling up the engine with larger cylinders and new lightweight pistons. The resulting design weighed , and delivered , making it by far the most powerful lightweight engine of its era, far outperforming the one that would eventually be successful on 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 engine was delivered in March 1903 and installed on the Aerodrome for testing that summer. In September the aircraft was moved to a launch platform on a houseboat in the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

. With Manly aboard as pilot, the Aerodrome crashed in spectacular fashion in its first test on October 7. Langley had also fallen prey to the "scale it up" problem, and the full-sized model of what was a sturdy -scale model was hopelessly fragile. A second test also ended in a crash into the river on December 8. Manly survived both times. In 1914

used the engine in the heavily modified Aerodrome in an effort to break the Wright brothers aircraft control system patent. In additional flight tests the Curtiss team used a different and more modern engine. Years later the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

asked Manly for a monograph about the engine, and he wrote an account that significantly downplayed Balzer's contribution, reducing it to supplying a non-working design that he rebuilt. Balzer's family was upset, and the Smithsonian eventually wrote a much more balanced version.

Specifications

References

* * ''A History of Aircraft Piston Engines'', Herschel Smith, Sunflower University Press, 1986, * * * * *

External links

Balzer automobile patents
- has several images of Balzer's engine patents, and a picture of the engine itself {{DEFAULTSORT:Manly-Balzer engine 1900s aircraft piston engines Aviation pioneers History of aviation Water-cooled radial engines