Wright Whirlwind

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Partially opened Wright J-4B in the Canada Aviation Museum

Wright Whirlwind is a family of air-cooled aircraft star engines built by the US company Wright Aeronautical . Originally consisting of nine cylinders, the family was later expanded to include five and seven cylinders. Double radial engines with fourteen cylinders were also developed, but not built in series.

description

The first Whirlwind was a direct successor to the Lawrance J-1 , an air-cooled nine-cylinder star engine that was built by Lawrance Aero Engine Company for the US Navy . Since the Navy preferred radial engines at the time, but had doubts that Lawrance would be able to build a sufficient number of engines, they forced Wright in 1923 to buy Lawrence and build the J-1 themselves. Wright's J-1 was the first of the R-790 Whirlwind range . The J-3, J-4, J-4A, J-4B and finally the popular and successful J-5 followed in 1925.

In 1928 Wright replaced the R-790 with the J-6 Whirlwind series, where a supercharger was introduced to boost engine performance. Furthermore, the cylinders have been enlarged with enlarged bores . The series comprised three models: the R-975 with nine cylinders, the R-760 with seven cylinders and the R-540 with five cylinders and thus offered a spectrum of different engine outputs based on the same design. The R-975 was the most popular model and was also used in armored vehicles during World War II .

With the R-1510 with 600 PS (441 kW) and the R-1670 with 800 PS (588 kW), Wright also developed two double radial engines with fourteen cylinders in the mid-1930s. These were used in various prototypes of military aircraft, but none of them were mass-produced.

The air-cooled Whirlwinds were lighter and more reliable than water-cooled engines of the same power as the cooling systems meant additional weight and additional maintenance. Because of these advantages, Whirlwind motors have been built and used in large numbers. Manufacturers such as Continental Motors , Hispano-Suiza and Shvetsov built them under license .

Models of the series

  • J-5 / R-790 : nine-cylinder star engine, 200 hp (147 kW). Built from 1923 to 1928.
  • J-6-5 / R-540 : five-cylinder star engine, 165 hp (121 kW). Built from 1928 to 1937.
  • J-6-7 / R-760 : seven-cylinder star engine, 225 hp (165 kW) to 350 hp (257 kW). Built from 1928 to 1945.
  • J-6-9 / R-975 : nine-cylinder star engine, 300 PS (221 kW) to 450 PS (331 kW). Built from 1928 to the 1950s.
  • R-1510 : twin-row fourteen-cylinder star engine, 600 hp (441 kW). Introduced in 1933, prototypes only.
  • R-1670 : twin-row fourteen-cylinder star engine, 800 hp (588 kW). Introduced in 1934, prototypes only.

literature

  • Bill Gunston: World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines . Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough 1986, p. 196, 197 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wright Engines - Past and Present. (pdf) Curtiss-Wright, 1940, archived from the original ; accessed on January 25, 2020 (English).