Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled
radial piston engines designed by the
Wright Aeronautical Corporation
Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...
and used in numerous
American aircraft in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
Background
The
Wright Aeronautical Corporation
Wright Aeronautical (1919–1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. It was the successor corporation to Wright-Martin. It built aircraft and was a supplier of aircraft engines to other builders in the ...
was formed in 1919, initially to develop liquid-cooled
Hispano-Suiza V8 engines under license. In 1923 the Wright purchased the
Lawrance Aero Engine Company, and with the purchase
Charles Lawrance came to Wright as the Vice-President. Later that year the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
awarded Wright a contract to develop two new air-cooled radial engines. The first, called the P-1, was a 9-cylinder single row design of displacement that was derived from an earlier Lawrence design, it produced . The second, the P-2, had the same displacement as the P-1, but was an improved design that produced . Neither engine entered production, with the Navy selecting the superior
Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp
The Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp is an aircraft engine of the reciprocating type that was widely used in American aircraft from the 1920s onward. It was the Pratt & Whitney aircraft company's first engine, and the first of the famed Wasp seri ...
, so in 1926 work started on the improved design, which became the R-1750 Cyclone.
Cyclone family
R-1300 Cyclone 7 (1942)
* 7-cylinder single row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
* Power output:
R-1750 Cyclone (1926)
* 9-cylinder single row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
* Power output:
R-1820 Cyclone (1932)
* 9-cylinder single row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
* Power output:
R-2600 Cyclone 14 (Twin Cyclone) (1935)
* 14-cylinder two row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
* Power output:
R-3350 Cyclone 18 (Duplex Cyclone) (1937)
* 18-cylinder two row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
* Power output:
R-4090 Cyclone 22
* 22-cylinder two row air cooled radial
* Bore x stroke:
* Displacement:
Note: the designations refer to the
engine configuration
The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized.
Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categoriz ...
s as follows: "R" =
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 ...
, followed by the approximate
displacement
Displacement may refer to:
Physical sciences
Mathematics and physics
*Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...
in
cubic inch
The cubic inch (symbol in3) is a unit of volume in the Imperial units and United States customary units systems. It is the volume of a cube with each of its three dimensions (length, width, and height) being one inch long which is equivalent ...
es.
See also
*
Pratt & Whitney Wasp series – contemporary competing line of engines
*
Wright Whirlwind series – contemporary smaller displacement line of engines
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright Cyclone Series
Aircraft air-cooled radial piston engines
1920s aircraft piston engines
Cyclone series