Date:         Thu, 19 Jun 2003 23:03:21 -0500
Reply-To:     John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Rodgers <j_rodgers@CHARTER.NET>
Subject:      Off topic - Aircraft Engine
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed

Hopeing some of The List's aviation types could help me out here.

There was a FAA certified engine that had a crankshaft with a sort of
waffle plate mounted in the center. Like the shaft went through the
center of a circular plate. The plate was waffled up and down so that if
the plate was in a slot, and the crank turned, the plate moved through
the slot and the waffle made the slotted peice move back and forth .
Prol'ly not making any sense, but don't know how to describe this thing.
Anyway, the pistons were long cylingers with a single slot in the side.
They are what rode on the waffle plate, and they were mounted parallel
to the crankshaft, not perpendicular. The pistons were double ended, and
as the crank rotated, the waffle plate wobbled, and being in the slot on
the pistons, made the pistons move back and forth. This engine had spark
plugs at both ends, and you could shut down one bank of plugs and save
fuel. It was water cooled as I recall, and was designed to have a low
frontal resistance to air flow.

I am trying to find a name for this engine, so I can research it.
Anybody have any info on this thing. A name, or a source of info, etc.
Like I said, it was certified by the FAA for use in aircraft, but it
never made it in the aircraft engine market. Some years ago I had heard
that the certificate holder was looking for a partner to get this engine
to market, so the concept was not dead, even then.

Thanks for any help  ---- and apologies for the non-Vgon band width use.

John  Rodgers
88 GL Driver