rotary engine throttling
 

sorry if this has been covered before: i'm not too swift with site navigation...


i've heard/read that the ww1-era rotaries were an "all or nothing" proposition as far as throttle setting, with the pilot having only two settings: full-bore or off (referred to as "blipping"?). is this true? how much control did a pilot have over his engine output?

Greetings
The earliest rotaries were on/off systems, but later developments allowed a degree of throttling by cutting off ignition in specified cylinders. If you go to the bar above, click on search, and use your thread title of "rotary engine throttling", the 'show threads' search option will give you 11 different threads dealing with this same topic. As you suspected, there has been a good deal of discussion on this theme. :)

It is only true for the early Gnomes, most other rotaries having either a fuel regulator or a fuel regulator (the 'fine adjustment') and an air regulator (the 'throttle'), a petrol cock (on/off) and a 'blip' switch for low-speed running (used mostly for ground handling, sometimes for landing). Most of the mid to late war rotaries could be 'throttled' down to about 600-800 rpm in the air (or about 50%-60% of engine speed), but no further. It is a rather complicated subject, and if you put 'rotary' 'engine' and 'throttle' into the forum's search engine you will find a lot more information.

Bletchley :)

thanks for the leads, gentlemen --i shall delve into the site archives as you directed.

...then maybe recommend closing this thread: no point in having it clutter up the place...