The Clerget 16X was an experimental
French 16-cylinder
X engine
An X engine is a piston engine with four banks of cylinders around a common crankshaft, such that the cylinders form an "X" shape when viewed front-on.
The advantage of an X engine is that it is shorter than a V engine of the same number of c ...
built in about 1918.
Design
Clerget are best known for their well engineered
rotary engine
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its ...
s produced from 1911 to the end of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in 1918, the first of their type to deliver fuel-air mixture to the
cylinder head
In a piston engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders, forming the roof of the combustion chamber. In sidevalve engines the head is a simple plate of metal containing the spark plugs and possibly heat dissipation fins. In more modern ...
s by external induction tubes via externally
push rod operated
inlet valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings, ...
s. They later made a series of static
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 (geometry), a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system
* Radial set
* A ...
aircraft
diesel engines
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the die ...
.
[Taylor, 2001, p.279][Gunston, 1989, p.41][Lumsden, 1994, p.133] The experimental 16X was a departure from all of these; despite contemporary descriptions as a radial engine, it was in more modern terms an
X-type,
four stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...
water-cooled petrol engine, essentially two 90° V-8 cylinder engines, one inverted, coupled to a common output shaft.
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Specifications
References
Bibliography
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{{Clerget aeroengines
1910s aircraft piston engines
16X