"Artemus" wrote in message
...

"Ed Huntress" wrote ...
: It's built by a British company, RCV Engines Ltd., and it's amazingly
: simple. They've made available a 7-year-old SAE paper about it, with
lots of
: detail about the seals (for anyone who's followed rotary-valve engines
over
: the years, that's where most of the action is):
:
: http://www.rcvengines.com/pdf_files/saepaper.pdf

Interesting and clever spin on an old problem.

Correct me if I missed something but it appears that with the cylinder
rotating
and the piston not rotating there will be a lot more friction between the
piston
and cylinder. Furthermore, the piston rings will be spinning with the
cylinder
and against the piston. These ring/piston friction points will be
difficult to lube
and could be a serious reliability issue.
Art

Apparently they've held up well in Honeywell's tests, and the fuel
efficiency is much higher than a two-stroke. So the friction doesn't seem to
be an issue in practice.

I've been reading about this engine in various places and the two reasons it
seems to have been chosen are that it has a power-to-weight ratio close to
that of a two-stroke, and it will run on JP-8.

--
Ed Huntress