Radial engine

A reciprocating engine with cylinders arranged like spokes around a central crankshaft. Its compact, air-cooled design made it especially common in aircraft.

Master-and-articulating-rod assembly: A crankshaft linkage in which one cylinder’s connecting rod carries attachment points for the other cylinders’ rods. It lets several cylinders drive one crankpin despite their circular arrangement.
Reciprocating engine: An engine that produces power through pistons moving back and forth inside cylinders. A radial engine is a specific arrangement of this broader engine type.
Aircraft engine: An engine designed to propel an aircraft, with requirements shaped by weight, reliability, and operating conditions. Radial engines are a major historical type of aircraft engine.
Inline engine: A piston engine whose cylinders are arranged in a single row along the crankshaft. Its narrow frontal profile contrasts with the radial engine’s broad circular layout.
Drag (physics): A force that opposes an object’s motion through a fluid such as air. The radial engine’s large frontal area can increase aircraft drag.
Four-stroke engine: An internal-combustion engine that completes its cycle through intake, compression, power, and exhaust strokes. Most aircraft radial engines use this cycle to produce power.
Crankshaft: A rotating shaft that converts piston motion transmitted through connecting rods into torque. The cylinders’ rods act on a central crankshaft.
Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp: An American eighteen-cylinder, two-row radial aircraft engine introduced in 1939. This powerful radial engine equipped many prominent World War II aircraft.
V engine: A piston engine with two cylinder banks set at an angle to a shared crankshaft. It offers multiple cylinders with less frontal area than a single-row radial.
Power-to-weight ratio: The power produced by a system divided by its mass. Radial engines offered useful power for their weight in early aircraft.

Linked from 7 pages