I know this for sure, if you read that to it's end, your head will fall off, or at least mine did! I liked the old WWl rotary aeroplane engines, finally took the time to do some research on them, it seemed as tho they all "sputtered" a lot, and flew kinda katywampus, but the pilot sure looked cool with his scarf on, didn't he? Turns out, if you'll research them, the crank flange was bolted to the nose of the airplane, and the engine and prop spun together, the prop was bolted solid to the engine, the "sputtering" was caused by the fueling system, it being introduced thru the crankshaft, and ran at full throttle all the time, so to control engine speed, the guy with the silk scarf had to use the ignition, off/on, to control engine speed, and the fancy silk scarf was part of it, as it had no crankcase, the fuel/castor oil mix was "total loss", requiring the scarf to wipe his goggles with, to see where he was going, now, haven't we come a long way? Boy, the "do-rites" would all have heart attacks in today world, with that system!!Bob!
