Unusual rotary engines

Introduction / Curtiss-Wright / PATS Generator for business jets / More Information

Introduction

Items on this page are engines and information for which there is not enough material available to make a full page.

Curiss-Wright pictures:

Curtiss-Wright rotors (362x410)

Curtiss-Wright rotors (657x334)

Curtiss-Wright was another licensee of  Wankel rotary engine technology from NSU.
The company made many variants of the rotary of 1 to 6 rotors in various rotor sizes (the massive rotor was only a single rotor engine). They even made an experimental rotary mustang.
This program eventually developed into the John Deere/Lycoming SCORE engine.

The picture on the left shows various Curtiss-Wright rotary rotors - 8.6, 60, and 1920 cubic inch rotors.
The picture on the Right is a Mid-1960s engineering schematic of the Curtiss-Wright Wankel.

PATS Aeroplane auxiliary power unit

PATS Wankel generator (520x350)

PATS engine internals (771x329)

PATS injector & glow plug (492x425)

The PATS Company's produces a "HF" Wankel powered Auxiliary power unit ('APU') for business jets. An APU is a generator for power on the ground while main engines aren't running.
It is one tenth the cost and burns half the jet fuel of a conventional turbine APU. It is 10,000 watts or about 18 HP.
Apparently this thing is quite small - it looks to be about the size of a lawnmower engine.
It is made by Pats, Inc. 9570 Berger Road Columbia MD 21046-1569 (410) 381 5533 Ext 111 huters@patsinc.com

The engine itself is made by the military engine company UAV Engine Ltd. in UK (they belong 80% to Silver Arrow/Elbit Systems Ltd, Israel.)
It is derived from Norton's motorcycle rotary engine (294cc/chamber) and is liquid cooled, and the rotor looks like it is oil cooled. The rotor bearings are needles or rollers.
The intake and exhaust are peripheral ports and it uses direct injection with a JP4 (Kerosene Jet Fuel, not petrol/gasoline) burning external combustion chamber. The device on the right is a glow plug that adds enough heat to start and run at low power.

More Information:

In the 1960s and early 1970s there were many manufacturers investigating rotary engines. Since the mid 1990s this seems to have undergone some renewed interest thanks to developments in materials and the Wankel rotary's inherent qualities (good power-weight; compact packaging, smooth operation).
There is quite a bit of information on the web about the newer engines.

Further reading and acknowledgements:
* Curtiss-Wright pictures and some info from 'Prime-Mover' website.
* Special thanks to Paul from the Aircraft Rotary Engine Newsletter (rotaryeng@earthlink.net) for the PATS APU pictures and info.
* The Curtis-Wright series of engines was quite extensively written about in the 1970s in various books. Try your local library or the library in the engineering department of a university.

Other relevant reading at Craig's Rotary Page (Please go via the INDEX page):
* Lada/AutoVaz page (Non-Mazda rotaries)
* NSU page (Non-Mazda rotaries)
* John Deere page (Non-Mazda rotaries)

Other relevant sites on the Internet (Please go via the LINKS page):
* Curtiss-Wright webpage (Note, there is no mention of the rotary engine program there)

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