Jump to content

Wankel Engine


Recommended Posts

Nice one. Paraglider Pete was talking about it the other week. At the moment the power to weight ratio between the 4 and 2 stroke means the 2 stroke wins hands down for me. I think the electric ppg is a non-starter. This is just my opinion, but I think the Wenkel engine will change all this. 4 stroke, more power, less weight and quiet - it has to be a winner.

Bendme

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The wankel is a rotary engine. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wankel_engine

for the full description.

Used by Mazda for the RX7 (a 3 rotor engine), Norton for their 1990ish bike (a 2 rotor engine).

Mazda also used a 4 rotor engine in their LeMans group C cars which would hurt your ears but really sounded nice.

Always a bit of an enigma regarding engine capacity calculations.

Rotor seals have always been an issue due to materials wearing too quickly and emmissions are also an issue.

Martin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mazda also used a 4 rotor engine in their LeMans group C cars which would hurt your ears but really sounded nice.

Martin

Thanks Martin for that very happy memory :D At night (cooler air?) it was the best/worst noise I've heard and drowned out all the other cars, even the thunder like Aston.

Assuming all the heat is generated in the middle, can you still air cool a wankel engine? Wearing a radiator full of boiling water would be a shame.

Also, although 4 stroke, do they still need oil in the petrol?

Cheers

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi all!

Im relativly new to this sport (still at the training stage). I must say im finding this site very useful, well done!

Back on topic, i would be very interested in flying a wankel paramotor. I think electric paramotors will be a while before they can equal performace levels (endurance etc) of petrol motors.

Not only does the wankel offer quieter, vibration free operation, the power of the everest motor is astounding! and the weights not too bad either!

Any ideas how long it will before a wankel motor is 'on the shelf'?

Regards Samuel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...
Hi,

Any idea if parajet will be bringing out the 4 stroke Wankel Engine. Would be very interested in that.

Bendme

4 Stroke Wankel?

Aren't 4 Stroke and Wankel completly different?

Four stroke is a piston engine called 4 stroke because it has four strokes to every ignition.

wankel is a rotary engine that ignites every rotation,

A small rotary engine would probably need oil mixed into the fuel? or do they inject the oil?

Paul D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I would most like to see available for use in paramotors is an air cooled two stroke gasoline direct injection engine with a shaped piston head for maximal combustion efficiency, an oxygen/exhaust gas analyser with feedback to the engine management system and ultra lean burn and maximal power maps for cruising and take off respectively.

It would have the efficiency and cleanliness of a four stroke with the weight of a two stroke and the added bonus of automatic adjustment of the fuel mixture with altitude.

The technology is available and is widely used for small scooters and motorcycles. All it needs is a bloke with the knowledge, skill, resources and time to adapt it for paramotor use.

High power is not the most important requirement of a paramotor engine. Weight and fuel efficiency are far more important. Sometimes, too powerful an engine can land you in trouble very quickly if you are not careful. Personally, I wouldn't buy a Wankel engined paramotor unless the weight is very significantly lower (unlikely if water cooling and radiators etc are needed) or it is much more fuel efficient than a conventional paramotor. I would be happy to accept a small weight penalty for significantly better fuel economy but the additional 8 to 10 kg weight of 4strokes currently available is a bit too much for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 Stroke Wankel?

Aren't 4 Stroke and Wankel completly different?

They are indeed since wankels don't have a 'stroke' as much as an elliptical explosion path - power stroke they do have, although they overlap.

I think the term is retained to denote the oiling system as part of the engine, vs part of the fuel burn.

I was trying to find this again for my last post as it seems the closest to what a wankel does, yet remain in the realm of a piston engine.

Long way to go to be a production machine, and I've not yet seen an actual engine running other then on air pressure, so I don't know (maybe designer doesn't either??) if it would even hold up to the uneven heat stresses - certainly innovative though:

See 1:22 for his take on what a car engine would look like.

shorter demo with cutaway:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't know how locked in these specs are, but they're better than wild speculation:

http://www.parajet.com/index.php?id=122

Notes:

Power Out Put: 40hp @ 7600rpm

The wolfe engineering site cites:

44.25hp/33 kW at 8750 rpm

I wonder if there's an rpm limiter planned, or the 7600rpm number was simply chosen to line up with today's parajet redrives?

Either way, very interesting.

I'm bracing for the eventual price-point and hope some volume is projected to make it more available to the masses.

Bring it Gilo!

8)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Upcoming Events

    No upcoming events found
×
×
  • Create New...