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Aviation History
1927
1927 - 0913.PDF
DECEMBER I, 1927 UNORTHODOX AMERICAN ENGINE SHOWS REMARKABLE FUEL ECONOMY The Fairchild-Caminez Flight-Tested for Over 17 Hours IT is now some years ago that the " Caminez " engine was first produced, and a year or so ago the Fairchild Aviation Corporation of New York took over the engine for further development, the engine henceforth becoming known as the Fairchild-Caminez. Of very unorthodox design, this engine is a four-cylindered radial air cooled, in which, instead of the usual crankshaft and connecting rods, the pistons operate, via rollers in the piston skirt, on a double-Tobed cam on the main shaft. The engine is a normal four-stroke, but owing to the peculiar cam drive each piston completes one power stroke in each revolution of the main shaft. One important feature of the special system of operation is that the main shaft rotates at a very low speed. Obviously one cannot say that the main shaft rotates at " one-half engine speed," but that in effect is the result of the cam drive. Put in another way, the main shaft rotates at a speed one-half of that of a normal engine of the same capacity and with the same piston speed. Consequently, the thrust horse-power of the Fairchild-Caminez engine is high, and by fitting a large-diameter propeller excellent get-off and climb are obtained. The particular type of engine in question develops 135 b.h.p. at a main shaft speed of only 1,000 r.p.m., and for a weight of 340 lb., or 2-52 Ib./h.p. This is rather too much for a modern light 'plane, but presumably there would be no difficulty in producing a slightly smaller version giving some 80 h.p. or so, when the small size of engine and low propeller speed should be particularly efficient in the types of light 'plane now becoming so popular in this country. In the American tests of fuel consumption a Fairchild- Caminez 447 B cam engine was used, fitted in a Waco 10 biplane. This particular engine was an old experimental one which had been flown a total of more than 100 hours without being overhauled previously to the consumption test. The Waco 10 carried pilot and observer, and in the test made on October 1, 1927, an average cruising speed of 80 m ph. was maintained, the average propeller speed being 725 r.p.m. At the end of the seven hours' flight the quantity of petrol consumed was found to be 34 gallons, corresponding to an average consumption of 4-8 gallons per hour. This figure indicates American gallons, of course, and represents an hourly consumption of 4 imperial gallons. The average oil consumption was 0- KS I'.S.A. gallon per hour. For the second test the petrol capacity was increased to FAIRCHILD-CAMINEZ ENGINE : Propeller load curves of brake horse-power, total fuel consumption, and specific fuel consumption, against revolutions per minute. The engine has a capacity of 447 cub. in., and weighs 340 lb. The Waco 10 fitted with Fairchild-Caminez engine, used in the fuel consumption tests. Note the large- diameter propeller and the small size of the engine (135 b.h.p.). 821 c.2
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