The First Airplane Diesel Engine: Packard Model DR-980 of 1928Meyer, Robert B.
History
The First Airplane Diesel Engine: Packard Model DR-980 of 1928
Meyer, Robert B.
Airplanes -- Motors (Diesel)
[30] Blower in this sense refers to a low-pressure air pump
(supercharger) designed to increase cylinder scavenging efficiency by
blowing out exhaust gasses. In doing this it also increases somewhat the
amount of fresh air introduced into the cylinders. Woolson invented a
2-stroke cycle blown engine; the patent was issued in 1932 (patent
1853714) with rights assigned to the Packard Motor Car Company. (Woolson
himself died in 1930.)
[31] A 2-stroke cycle engine completes 360 deg. of crankshaft rotation in
what it takes a 4-stroke cycle engine 720 deg. to accomplish. A 3-cylinder
two-stroke cycle engine therefore has the same capacity to do work as a
6-cylinder four-stroke cycle engine. For this reason the former type of
engine is both more compact and lighter than the latter type.
The above advantages, plus the increased efficiency of the blown 2-cycle
diesel, are discussed in _Flight--The Aeronautical Engineer Supplement_
(December 26, 1940), vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 545 and 552.
[32] Packard advertisement--_Aero Digest_ (June 1930), vol. 16, no. 6,
p. 23.
[33] _Aviation_ (March 15, 1930), vol. 28, no. 11, p. 531.
[34] _The National Aeronautic Magazine_ (April 1932), vol. 10, no. 4.,
p. 18.
[35] Appendix, p. 47.
[36] See Woolson's patent 1794047, issued in 1931 and assigned to the
Packard Motor Car Company. "An object of my invention is to
automatically regulate the compression ratio in an engine inversely to
the speed...." See also his patent 1891321, issued in 1932 and assigned
to the Packard Motor Car Company. It describes a similar but
nonautomatic system. Woolson therefore fully realized the disadvantages
of the high cylinder pressures his engine developed at high rpm's.
[37] Letter, Clarence H. Wiegman to National Air Museum, November 1,
1961.
[38] Ibid.
[39] Major George E. A. Hallet, U.S. Air Service, former director of
engineering division, McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio.
[40] "Test of Packard-Diesel radial air-cooled engine," Navy Department,
Bureau of Aeronautics, Report AEL-335, July 13, 1931, BuAer Proj. 2265.
[41] _Aviation Week and Space Technology_ (February 19, 1962), vol. 76,
no. 8, p. 101.
[42] _Aeronautics_ (October 1929), vol. 5, no. 4, p. 31.
[43] Letter, Richard Totten to National Air Museum, January 28, 1964.
[44] According to Frederic E. Hatch of the National Air Museum, it is
possible that the engine failed because the fuel injectors became
clogged. He notes that the airplane refueled at several fishing ports,
and therefore must have used diesel oil set aside for fishing boats.
This oil was generally quite dirty. As a result it was routine for the
fishermen to have to clean engine oil filters frequently enroute. The
oil filters of the Packard diesel could not be cleaned in flight.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.
Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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