Posted by Brian in Oregon on September 09, 1999 at 09:23:58:
In Reply to: Re: Dodge radial tank engine posted by Don on September 09, 1999 at 07:04:15:
One had seperate water pumps for each block, the other had one large pump.
It does not look like a true radial engine. It's in the shape of a five pinted star with the bottom two points being further away from each other.
The five individual cranks most likely turned large gears driving a common driveshaft (can't call it a crankshaft, really). This was not a new idea, the idea was tried on the XB-39, a B-29 with eight Allison V-12 engines, the engines being paired in a W pattern and also on the German He177 four-engine bomber. It's engines were paired into two nacelles, so it looked like a twin engine bomber. It also looked like a W layout.