Never seen one of these before...

Rotary engines of this type used to be very popular in aircraft, because it was claimed they were lighter, but this is the first time I've ever heard of their use in a vehicle.
 
It would be very stable, due to the gyroscopic effect, might make it hard to steer. Does that mean the front wheel rotates at engine speed?
 
I wonder? It must have some sort of clutch at the very least. As for turning, gyro's will twist at an axis 90 degrees to the input. So if you steer to the left rotating in the Z axis it will react by trying to turn in the x axis causing the wheel to want to lean. Good if it leans into the corner, bad if it tries to lean out of the corner.
 
sdibbers said:
Firing up one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L3oOC9HDAc
Click to expand...

really impressive, I couldn't happen to notice this radial engine bike when looking at that utube vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jGF8e6n_dk

and to be fair this one is six f'n shades of crazy, I can completely understand why the video doesn't actually show the bike in road action how ever I was amazed they actually started it and it didn't whirl across the floor in some centripetal motion. To be honest it actually left me gob smacked.

Graeme
 
In the notes that accompany that great animation it mentions the total loss lubrication with castor oil, the pilots were flying through a diffuse cloud of it.
No Sopwith Camel pilot ever suffered from constipation (and that had nothing to do with the very real terrors of WW 1 air combat).
 
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