Wright Cyclone
From Graces Guide
Note: This is a sub-section of Wright Aeronautical Corporation.
Wright Cyclone was the name given to a family of air-cooled radial piston engines designed by Wright Aeronautical Corporation and used in numerous American aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s.
Variants
- R-1750 Cyclone 9
- A new design was launched in 1926. This was a nine-cylinder radial with a displacement of 1750 cu in and internally cooled exhaust valves.
- R-1820 Cyclone 9
- In 1932, the R-1750 was developed to a capacity of 1823 cu in. This was the F model Cyclone, designated R-1820. This engine introduced a forged aluminium crankcase and was developed through the 1930s to reach 890 hp. It used a General Electric supercharger, and Wright concluded that this feature limited the potential power output of the engine. For the next development, the G-Series of 1937, Wright developed its own single-speed supercharger. The G-series was developed to deliver 1200 hp at 2500 rpm and made up the bulk of R-1820 Cyclone production during World War 2. It was installed in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The final phase of development of the single row radial design was the H-Series at 1350 hp.
- R-2600 Cyclone 14
- Wright went on to develop two-row engines with 14 cylinders in two rows of 7, called the Cyclone 14, R-2600. This was installed in the Boeing 314, Grumman TBM/TBF Avenger, North American B-25 Mitchell, and some models of the Douglas A-20 Havoc (RAF Boston).
- R-3350 Cyclone 18
- The penultimate Cyclone development was the 18 cylinder engine R-3350, called the Duplex Cyclone or Cyclone 18. Among other applications, it was installed in Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Douglas A-1 Skyraider, Lockheed P-2 Neptune, and Lockheed C-121 Constellation. In commercial applications it stayed in production until 1957.
- R-4090 Cyclone 22
- An experimental 22 cylinder two-row radial intended to compete with the large Pratt & Whitney radial engines. Three prototypes are known to have been built, but development was abandoned to allow resources to be used for the R-3350 development programme.
See Also
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