Sunbeam Engines: Afridi
Note: This is a sub-section of Sunbeam: Sunbeam-Coatalen.
The Sunbeam Afridi was an aero-engine produced by Sunbeam during the First World War.
Conceived to replace the Crusader/Zulu on the production lines, Louis Coatalen designed a companion engine for the V-12 Cossack, giving it the name Afridi. The Afridi was a much smaller engine than the Cossack and also spawned a whole family of derivative engines.
The major attributes of the Afridi were a bore of 92 mm (3.62 in) and stroke of 135 mm (5.31 in) displacing 11.476 l (700.3 cu in) for a power output of 200 hp (149 kW)at 2,000rpm. The twin overhead camshafts were driven by gears, directly operating two inlet and two exhaust valves per cylinder. Two Claudel-Hobson carburettors on the outsides of the blocks fed mixture to the cylinders, where it was ignited by the dual ignition system energised by four 6-cyl magnetos.
Three hundred Afridis were ordered, of which 299 were delivered and 100 converted to Sunbeam Maoris. Service use was mainly in Curtiss R.2 tractor biplanes and various Short seaplanes.
Direct developments on this engine were the