The Avia Rk.17 was a 9-cylinder

radial Radial is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Mathematics and Direction * Vector (geometric), a line * Radius, adjective form of * Radial distance, a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system * Radial set * A bearing f ...

aircraft engine, developed from the 7-cylinder Avia Rk.12, with a rated output of 270 kW (360 hp). The Rk.17 was one of

Avia Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. It was founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, and diversified into trucks after 1945. As an aircraft maker it was notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534. Avia ...

's own designs and was built in

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

in the 1930s.

Design and development

As well as producing aircraft and building

Hispano-Suiza Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...

and

Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...

aero-engines under licence, Avia also designed and built their own radial engines. The Rk.17 was a 9-cylinder

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced indu ...

model, rated at 360 hp. It was a nine-cylinder version of their Rk.12. It was a conventional air-cooled radial: nitrided steel barrels with integral fins were screwed into heat treated

Y alloy Y alloy is a nickel-containing aluminium alloy. It was developed by the British National Physical Laboratory during World War I, in an attempt to find an aluminium alloy that would retain its strength at high temperatures. Duralumin, an aluminium ...

heads. The

piston A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-t ...

s were also of heat treated Y alloy. The

crankcase In a piston engine, the crankcase is the housing that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block. Two-stroke engines typically use a crankcase-compression design, resulting in the fuel ...

was cast from heat treated silumin alloy, with some minor parts using magnesium alloy. The single throw two piece

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecti ...

was linked to the pistons with an I-section Y alloy

master rod Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

, with a single piece big end, which carried the other eight

piston rod In a piston engine, a piston rod joins a piston to the crosshead and thus to the connecting rod that drives the crankshaft or (for steam locomotives) the driving wheels. Internal combustion engines, and in particular all current automobile engin ...

Applications

* Avia Ba.122 *

Letov Š-50 __NOTOC__ The Letov Š-50 was a 1930s prototype Czechoslovakian military general-purpose monoplane, designed and built by Letov Kbely, Letov.Orbis 1985, p. 2316 Development The Š-50 was an all-metal twin-engined low mid-wing monoplane that firs ...

Design and development

Applications

Specifications

References

Further reading