The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled
radial
Radial is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Mathematics and Direction
* Vector (geometric), a line
* Radius, adjective form of
* Radial distance, a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system
* Radial set
* A bearing f ...
aircraft engines built by
Wright Aeronautical
Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...
(originally an independent company, later a division of
Curtiss-Wright
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...
). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to include five-cylinder and seven-cylinder varieties. Fourteen-cylinder
twin-row versions were also developed, but these were not commercially produced.
The Whirlwind series was succeeded by more powerful but still air-cooled radial aero engines, notably the
Pratt & Whitney Wasp series
The Pratt & Whitney Wasp was the civilian name of a family of air-cooled radial piston engines developed in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.Gunston 1989, p.114.
The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company (P&W) was founded in 1925 by Frederick B. Rentsc ...
and the
Wright Cyclone series
Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s.
Background
The Wright Aeronautical Corporation was ...
.
Description
The Whirlwind was a direct descendant of the
Lawrance J-1
The Lawrance J-1 was an engine developed by Charles Lanier Lawrance and used in American aircraft in the early 1920s. It was a nine-cylinder, air-cooled radial design.
Development
During World War I the Lawrance Aero Engine Company of New Yor ...
, a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial built by the
Lawrance Aero Engine Company
Lawrance Aero Engine Company was an American aircraft engine manufacturer. Founded by engine pioneer Charles Lawrance, it designed one of the first successful air-cooled radial engines. It existed for only 5 years, being acquired by Wright Aeronau ...
for the U.S. Navy. Because the Navy was very enthusiastic about air-cooled radials, but was concerned that Lawrance could not produce enough engines for its needs, it forced Wright to purchase the Lawrance company in 1923 and build the J-1 itself. Wright's J-1 was the first engine in its nine-cylinder
R-790 Whirlwind
The Wright R-790 Whirlwind was a series of nine-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical Corporation, with a total displacement of about and around . These engines were the earliest members of the Wright Whirlwi ...
series and was quickly followed by the J-3, J-4, J-4A, J-4B, and finally the popular and successful J-5 of 1925.
In 1928, Wright replaced the R-790 series with the J-6 Whirlwind family, in which a
supercharger was added to boost engine power and the cylinders were enlarged by expanding the
bore. This family included three members: the nine-cylinder
R-975, the seven-cylinder
R-760, and the five-cylinder
R-540, providing a range of different power levels using the same basic design. Of these, the R-975 proved the most popular, especially because of its use in
armored fighting vehicles
An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured car ...
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 opposing ...
.
During the mid-1930s, Wright also developed two fourteen-cylinder double-row versions of the Whirlwind, the R-1510 of , and the R-1670 of . These were used in a number of military aircraft prototypes, but neither engine reached the production stage.
Air-cooled Whirlwinds were lighter and more reliable than liquid-cooled engines of similar power, since a liquid cooling system added weight and required extra maintenance. Thanks to these advantages Whirlwind engines were used widely and were built in large numbers. Licensed copies were produced by manufacturers such as
Continental Motors,
Hispano-Suiza, and adapted for
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
government production by the
Shvetsov
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 powe ...
OKB-19 design bureau. The Whirlwind's success led to the development of other air-cooled radial engines throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
Whirlwind series
*
J-5 / R-790: 9-cylinder radial, . Produced 1923-1928.
*
J-6-5 / R-540: 5-cylinder radial, . Produced 1928-1937.
*
J-6-7 / R-760: 7-cylinder radial, . Produced 1928-1945.
*
J-6-9 / R-975: 9-cylinder radial, . Produced 1928-1950s.
*
R-1510: 14-cylinder twin-row radial, . Introduced 1933, prototypes only.
*
R-1670: 14-cylinder twin-row radial, . Introduced 1934, prototypes only.
See also
*
Whirlwind Glaciers in
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
named after the Wright Whirlwind series
USGS site
/ref>
References
*
* . Available from the Aircraft Engine Historical Society'
reference page
* . Available from the Aircraft Engine Historical Society'
reference page
{{US military piston aeroengines
Aircraft air-cooled radial piston engines
1920s aircraft piston engines