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Exploring the Mazda Wankel Rotary As an Alternative Aircraft Engine PAUL LAMAR, EAA 171194

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Exploring the Mazda Wankel Rotary As an Alternative Aircraft Engine PAUL LAMAR, EAA 171194 Exploring the Mazda Wankel rotary as an alternative aircraft engine PAUL LAMAR, EAA 171194 Aviation headline nine years from now: Rotary-Powered Racer Bests Warbirds at Reno RENO, NV—Employing turbocharged, twin three-rotor engines, the Rotary Ranger demonstrated what a low cross section, lightweight, reliable, 1,000-horsepower en- gine can do.... kay, so it hasn't happened yet. But let me convey why such a headline isn't that 1 O outrageous. When married with the proper airframe, a rotary engine could certainly give the old L\_ Li warbirds a run for their money. So why do engine experts seldom in- clude the rotary engine when dis- cussing the merits of auto engine conversions for aircraft? Most likely, it's lack of knowledge. If I could define the criteria for a realistically "perfect" aircraft engine, I think you'd agree that the follow- ing attributes are desirable in any aviation powerplant: reliability; ro- bustness; extended time between overhauls (TBO); damage tolerance; smoothness; no shock cooling; abil- 44 FEBRUARY 2002 Perry Mick's Mazda-powered Long- It believed in the rotary engine and valve springs, camshafts, lifters, EZ features a ducted fan shroud giv- solidly understood its superior kine- pushrods, and crankshafts--espe- ing it an extra-futuristic profile. matics. Eventually, Mazda sold more cially at high rpm. The crankshaft in than two million rotary engine-pow- a piston engine, for example, is a ity to run low-cost fuel; low fuel con- ered cars. stress analyst's worst nightmare sumption; low purchase cost; high with its twisting and turning every horsepower-to-weight ratio; com- Why Rotary? which way. pact size; and simplicity. Kinematics is the science of mechan- Wankel engines have no recipro- The Mazda Wankel rotary engine ics that deals with motion, and poor cating motion because every part meets most of these criteria. kinematics and reciprocating mo- moves in a circle or moves in nlore tion have always been the bane of or less the same direction. A two-ro- Wankel HistorY the piston engine. Things stop then tor Wankel engine has only three 1)r. Felix Wankel invented the start up again in the opposite direc- moving parts: two rotors and the ec- eponymous engine in the 1930s, tion twice per revolution. centric shaft, which is analogous to and I use "Wankel engine" in the This reciprocating action creates the piston engine's crankshaft. Un- generic sense to differentiate it from tremendous stress on connecting like a crankshaft, however, the ec- all other rotary engines. Around rods, pistons, piston pins, valves, centric shaft is straight and ex- 19S0, l)r. Wankel built a running pro- totype, but it didn't generate much com- mercial excitement. Several companies were interested in the engine, however. One of them was Toyo Kogyo, known to Americans as Mazda Motors, and it created a state-of- the-art computer- ized test facility ex- pressly for developing the en- gine. After a lengthy development period, Mazda started sell- ing cars with rotary engines in 1967. Over the years engineering chal- lenges continued to crop up, and the A B C E other rotary players gave up further development. But Mazda persevered. Top, Tracy Cook, of Real World Solu- tions (see sidebar page 48), is help- ing aircraft owner Dave Garber get his dual Mazda turbo engine-powered g ~ Reno racer back in shape. Note the dual radiators aft of the cockpit. Bottom, concept of an over-and-un- der dual Mazda Cosmo turbocharged three-rotor engines of 1000 hp each installed in a custom-designed Reno O ................................................. racer. Spo"t Aviation 4.5 tremely strong. The engine discharges its exhaust aircraft plumbing is a necessity. The turbocharged, gases as the rotor moves over open- Another testament to the engine's 800-hp, two-rotor, 10000 ings in either the rotor housing or bulletproof design is Mazda's track rpm Mazda racing engine of the end housings. This action is sim- record at the 24-hour endurance race stock displacement has demon- ilar to that of a two-cycle piston en- in LeMans, France. Mazda was the strated this strength. Not including gine, but the Wankel is a four-cycle only Japanese car manufacturer to the monster turbo and other acces- engine, and like a four-cycle, four- win the race outright. In 1991 Mazda sories, this powerplant weighs a cylinder engine, it fires twice per fielded a car with a four-rotor version mere 200 pounds. This represents an output shaft revolution. of the two-rotor RX-7 engine, and it unprecedented power-to-weight ra- Because nothing in the Wankel beat all comers, the who's who of ex- tio for all but a turbine engine. reciprocates, stops and starts moving otic European carmakers. Nobody in his or her right mind in the opposite direction, it remains Tearing down the engine after would think of mounting an 800- in perfect balance, just like a turbine the race revealed little or no wear. hp Mazda Wankel engine in a light or an electric motor. It's impossible The following year, LeMans banned general aviation airplane, but it to perfectly balance a piston engine rotary engines from the race. Now, might make an ideal engine for because certain parts oscillate or re- roughly 10 years later, Mazda rac- Unlimited air racing. It does illus- ciprocate—by design—throwing off ing rotaries are either severely trate the robustness of the Mazda its center of gravity. Consequently, handicapped or limited to compet- Wankel engine. the rotary runs smoother than any ing against other Mazda rotaries in Because they do not reciprocate, piston engine. auto racing. the Wankel's rotors are made of Wankel engines cannot fail cata- In homebuilt aircraft, however, rugged cast iron, and unlike the pis- strophically in the "hand grenade" Mazda Wankel engines are seeing a tons in a piston engine, they are fashion, as sometimes occurs with renaissance of sorts for several rea- nearly impossible to melt. A rotary piston engines. One of the worst sons, low cost not being the pri- engine has no exhaust valves to melt things that can happen to a Wankel mary driver. The main reason is or burn, a common problem in air- is an overheated engine caused by durability. The stock engine will run craft engines, and it has no camshafts loss of coolant, but it will still run for many hours at high power with to gall and no lifters to score. and usually will get you to a nearby little or no wear. airport. Cold pressure checking the Like the rotary itself, the engine's coolant system before flight is im- Recent Improvements combustion cycle is unique. portant, and using high quality AX Subscribers to the Aircraft Rotary En- | 1st Revolution | 2nd Revolution | 3rd Revolution | Shaft Rotation Angle O 90 180 270 360 450 540 630 720 810 900 990 1080 I I I I I I INTAKE COMPRESSION EXPANSION EXHAUST COMPRESSION EXPANSION EXHAUST INTAKE COMPRESSI(fl EXPANSION EXHAUST INTAKE COMPRESSION EXPANSION - — _.. — CHAMBER CHAMBER CHAMBER CHAMBER A: EXPANSION A: EXHAUST A: INTAKE A: COMPRESSION B: EXHAUST B: INTAKE B: EXPANSION B: EXHAUST C: INTAKE C: COMPRESSION C: EXHAUST C: INTAKE OUTPUT SHAFT ANGLE 360 DEGREES OUTPUT SHAFT AN OLE 5« DEGREES OUTPUT SHAFT 180 DECREES OUTPUT SHAFT 000 DEGREES 46 FEBRUARY 2002 ............................................... / @ Turbocharged Mazda Wankel RX7 en- gine mounted on the author's Pul- sar/KIS Cruiser with single radiator obliquely mounted under engine. Dia- gram is the author's installation draw- ings for his rotary powerplant. improvements, are not required. Based on the wear rate of the stock apex seals and cruising at about 150 hp and 4500 rpm, the projected TBO of a stock Mazda two-rotor engine in aircraft use is about 3,000 hours. Through real-world testing home- builders have found that mixing STOCK SIDE EXHAUST TYPE COOLING two-cycle oil with the fuel reduces DIAGRAM FOR KIS TR-4 the apex seal wear and the carbon SHORT COWL VERSION deposits inside the engine. The ratio 27.00 [ ) used is about one ounce of two-cycle oil to one gallon of gas. The stock engine injects oil from the crankcase ~INED 0 :RCOBLER INTAKE into the combustion chamber. AL IFOLD ~RCD 2,5 ]NCH CQMpRESSE# Crankcase oil contains certain wear AIR PIPE NOT SHB~4N COOLING' NOT .~aaWN CORE #2-I15 RAI)IATI]R IN F'rNAL RA£[AT[IR NOT SHOVN additives that really make it un- IN FRONT VIEV PJ]~ITION suited to this task, and users disable the oil injector when using the en- gine in a race car or airplane. Rotary Specifics INTAKE SOME PARTS NnT • Power-to-Weight Ratio SHn~N FOR CLARITY The power-to-weight ratio of the stock Mazda engine is excellent. De- gine Newsletter and others testing ro- High temperature, 500°F Teflon spite its mostly cast iron housing taries have further improved on what encapsulated silicon water jacket parts, the bare engine weighs 200 Mazda accomplished by using more seals and oil scraper O-rings have pounds. Expensive aluminum end costly high-tech materials for certain also been developed. These increase housings cut this weight by about 50 engine parts. Dr. Francisco Inanette, the engine's ability to withstand in- pounds. for instance, has developed a ceramic advertent overheating, which hap- The firewall forward installed apex seal (which is affixed to the ro- pens occasionally as homebuilders weight of a normally aspirated two- tor) that's so hard and smooth it has relearn pre-World War II lessons rotor Mazda engine with propeller no noticeable wear rate.
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