Inventor of the Rotary and Radial engines

The transfer (or delta) of heat units from the hot fins of the whirling cylinders to the moving air was effective, up to a point. (example, stick you hand out the car window, and you will cool the fingers more if you wiggle them in the air flow). There was some marginal improvement gained by installing deflectors to guide more air around the heads. Ideally, the engine should be allowed an unimpeded flow of air, however, all those edges spinning out in the breeze create a huge amount of frontal area. Hence, the cowlings, and spinners, which smoothed the airflow, and protected the pilot from a constant spray of castor oil, and heated up the engine. That's engineering, all those verstunken trade offs...

The transfer (or delta) of heat units from the hot fins of the whirling cylinders to the moving air was effective, up to a point. (example, stick you hand out the car window, and you will cool the fingers more if you wiggle them in the air flow). There was some marginal improvement gained by installing deflectors to guide more air around the heads. Ideally, the engine should be allowed an unimpeded flow of air, however, all those edges spinning out in the breeze create a huge amount of frontal area. Hence, the cowlings, and spinners, which smoothed the airflow, and protected the pilot from a constant spray of castor oil, and heated up the engine. That's engineering, all those verstunken trade offs...

[leo]

I have read that the Castor Oil emitted from Radial engines often caused pilots to "lose control" of certain bodily function. Is this true, and if so was it a major problem or just a rumor.

leo

[mike_baram]

Castor oil was the only lubricant at the time that could hold up in rotaries.
Unfortunately, it also got burned along with the gas, and the fumes were breathed in by the pilots.
Castor oil is a strong laxative......res ipse loqitor.

[leo]

Then, Mike:
Your telling me that all those sounds emulating from rotary engined aircraft did not originate in the same place?

leo

[leo]

Then, Mike:
Your telling me that all those sounds emulating from rotary engined aircraft did not originate in the same place?

leo

I asked one of the pilots at Old Rhinebeck about the castor oil-loose bowels story. He suggested that it was a load of (no pun intended) crap. He himself had never encountered such a problem, and he still lubricates his Gnome with castor oil.

The one mitigating factor I can think of is that the Rhinebeck aircraft are seldom aloft for more than 15-20 minutes at a time, and seldom for more than a couple of flights a week. This contrasts with one or more two-hour flights, five or six days a week. Perhaps the notorious rotary syndrome took time to develop. (Excuse me. I have to leave the room for a few minutes...)