On Tuesday, 15 November 2016 12:48:49 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 15/11/16 11:51, NY wrote:

Rotaries have always baffled me: how do you get your supply of fuel to
the cylinders without leakage where the stationary fuel tank feed meets
the rotating cylinder block. It's not like an electric motor where slip
rings or a commutator serve the equivalent purpose with electric
current: in the case of fuel, you need to prevent leakage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine


What was the advantage of rotating the cylinder block? Was is mainly
that the movement of the block though the air provides additional air
currents over the fins and allows the cylinders to be air-cooled rather
than water-cooled? Or was there any other advantage?


No flywheel = lighter.

Presumably rotaries tend to be noisier because each cylinder has its own
separate exhaust pipe - or if there is a common exhaust pipe it cannot
have such elaborate silencer because of the need to balance and minimise
the rotating mass.

No aircraft engine ever used a silencer as far as I know. Some night
fighters used some kind of flame baffles so they didnt show up at night.

Bollix.
"Hush kits" are available for many aircraft.
Usually they consist of a silencer and multi-bladed propeller.


Example
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...ng/nUcDEM1z674