The Renault 6Q, also called the Renault Bengali 6, is an air-cooled six-cylinder, inverted piston engine, producing about continuous power. It was designed and built in France and produced for more than ten years after its homologation in 1936, with large numbers built during World War II.

Design and development

The six-cylinder Renault 6Q and the four-cylinder Renault 4P, both from the early 1930s, shared the same bore, stroke and pistons. The 6Q was built in both unsupercharged and supercharged forms. The

centrifugal Centrifugal (a key concept in rotating systems) may refer to: *Centrifugal casting (industrial), Centrifugal casting (silversmithing), and Spin casting (centrifugal rubber mold casting), forms of centrifigual casting *Centrifugal clutch *Centrifug ...

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

was added at the back of the engine, driven off the

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...

via step-up gearing. It added to the weight and to the length but boosted the performance at altitude to a continuous power of at 2,500 rpm and . Two pre-war models were optimised to different altitudes, the 02/03 right- and left-handed pair to , with 7.61:1 gearing and the 04/05 pair to , with 12.274 gearing.

Operational history

The 6Q was homologated in 1936; 1700 were built before the war and 1660 during it. Post-war, production was resumed. The majority of pre-war 6Qs were used in

Caudron C.440 Goéland The Caudron C.440 ''Goéland'' ("seagull") was a six-seat twin-engine utility aircraft developed in France in the mid-1930s. Design and development It was a conventionally configured low-wing cantilever monoplane with tailwheel Landing gear, und ...

s, during the war in Goélands and post-war in Nord's Messerschmitt Bf 108 derived

Nord Pingouin The Nord Pingouin (, ''Auk'') was a French-built, re-engined Messerschmitt Bf 108 ''Taifun'' produced by SNCAN (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Nord). Development In 1942 the manufacture of the Messerschmitt Bf 108 was t ...

, in the Nord Noralpha and Ramier Bf 108 developments.

Variants

Even sub-type numbers rotate clockwise, odd numbers anti-clockwise as seen from engine. ;Renault 6Q-00/01: Unsupercharged LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-02/03: Supercharged to LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-04/05: Supercharged to LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-06/07: LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-08/09: LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-10/11: LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-18/19: LH/RH rotation ;Renault 6Q-20/21: LH/RH rotation

Applications

* Caudron C.631-5 Simoun * Caudron C.640 Typhon * Caudron C.690 * Caudron C.860 * Dewoitine HD.730 *

Farman F.430 The Farman F.430 was a 1930s French light transport designed and built by the Farman Aviation Works. Two variants with different engines were known as the F.431 and F.432. Design and development The F.430 was a low-wing cantilever monoplane wit ...

* Hanriot H.230 *

Morane-Saulnier MS.350 The Morane-Saulnier MS.350 was a French aerobatic trainer flown in 1936. Only one was built but it had a long career, flying post-war until the 1960s. Design The MS.350 was a two bay biplane with equal span wings. In plan these were straight ...

* Morane-Saulnier MS.501 * Nord 1101/2 Noralpha/Ramier *

Potez 661 The Potez 661 was a four-engined metal low-wing monoplane airliner developed in France just before World War II. The single example flew with Air Afrique on French colonial routes. Design and development In 1936 the well-established Potez compa ...

* Rey R.1 *

SNCASE SE-700 The SNCASE SE-700 was a three-seat passenger autogyro designed during World War II. Two were completed but only the first flew and the programme was soon abandoned. Design and development Design of the SE-700 began in 1939 but World War II del ...

SNCASE SE-1210 The SNCASE SE-1210 was an experimental French flying-boat designed and built by SNCASE as a flying scale model of the proposed SE-1200 transatlantic flying boat. Design and development Following the end of the Second World War, the French aircra ...

Engines on display

Ailes Anciennes Ailes or aile may refer to: People ;With this given name * Ailes Gilmour, pioneer of the American Modern Dance movement of the 1930s * Aile Asszonyi (born 1975) ;Surnamed * Roger Ailes (1940–2017), president of America's Fox News Channel and ch ...

, Toulouse: Renault 6Q 10 in a Nord 1101 Ramier I.

Specifications (post-war unsupercharged)

References

{{Renault aeroengines Air-cooled aircraft piston engines Inverted aircraft piston engines 1930s aircraft piston engines 6 Straight-six engines