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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0897.PDF
FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 2, 1932 The "Meteor Mark I ;; A New Two-Stroke Aero Engine with Many Novel Features FOR a great number of years inventors have been busy devising a really satisfactory application of the two-stroke principle to multi-cyclinder aero engines. For very small engines of two cylinders there is no difficulty, because the engine can be to all intents and purposes identical with the two-stroke used in road vehicles. When it comes to a multi - cylinder arrangement, however, the designer is faced with much greater difficulties. The main appeal of the two- stroke is its simplicity. If that is lost, and complications have to be introduced, the main reason for the two-stroke disappears. In a radial engine simple * crankcase compression is no longer possible, because while some of the pistons are moving towards the centre, and would thereby raise the compression in the crankcase, others are moving away from the centre and thus reducing the pressure as fast as it is being raised. Many schemes have been suggested from time to time DESIGNERS AND CONSTRUCTORS TOO : Mr. W. J. Newman (left) and Mr. H. J. Fenner, who invented, designed and built the " Meteor " engine. (FLIGHT Photo.) vibration as a result, there was no doubt that the engine not only ran but gave a fair amount of power. Incident ally, we understand the tests have been made on National Benzole mixture. The inventors, designers and constructors of the new engine are Mr. W. J. Newman and Mr. H. J. Fenner, who between them run a small engineering shop under the title of the Meteor Engineering Co., at 237, Kensal Road, London, W.10. Conceiving the idea about four years ago, Newman and Fenner have been working away at the problems ever since. Their progress has naturally been slow, as they have had no capital and have had to earn their living as they went along. However, the engine is now running, and although much may yet remain to be done to perfect it, the " Meteor " Mark I seems to have proved that a simple two- stroke arrangement, with individual crankcase compres sion, transfer passages, etc., can be made to work. The " Meteor I " is a radial air-cooled engine, with and experimental engines have been built, but hitherto eight cylinders arranged in a single bank. The charge no two-stroke engine has been used to any serious extent in aeroplanes. Our attention has been called recently to a new radial two-stroke engine in which a most ingenious arrangement of the crankthrow mechanism has enabled the inventors to achieve simple crankcase compression for individual cylinders. We would not for a moment suggest that the new engine is as yet ready for the market, or that all its " teething troubles " are over. It does, however, appear that the inventors have proved by the experimental engine which they have built that the principle adopted " works." We have seen the engine running, and although the fuel distribution was somewhat uneven, and the running attended by a good deal of is tlrawn, through a common induction ring, into the eight separate " crankcases " and thence forced through the usual transfer passages to the top of the pistons. Of the mechanism which has made the simple transfer type of two-stroke working possible, it is not desired to say anything at present. The " Meteor I " has a bore of 73 mm. and a stroke of 63.5 mm., giving a capacity of 2,133 cc. The cylinders and pistons are of cast iron, for cheapness, and altogether financial considerations have not permitted many refine ments which would be incorporated once the engine was really taken in hand and developed. Even at that, the (Concluded at foot of next page.) TWO VIEWS OF THE " METEOR " MARK I ENGINE : In the left-hand photograph the exhaust pipes are removed to show more clearly the arrangement of the engine. (FLIGHT Photos.) 833
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