The Wright Brothers' Engines and Their Design Part 5

Since the range of cylinder diameters utilized did not vary greatly, the valve sizes were correspondingly fairly uniform. The diameter of the valves for the original 4-in.-bore cylinder was 2 in., while that for the 4-3/8-in. bore used in the 6-cylinder engine was actually slightly smaller, 1-7/8 in. Possibly the Wrights clung too long to the automatic inlet valve, although it did serve them well; but possibly, as has been previously noted, there were valid reasons for continuing its use despite the inherently low volumetric efficiency this entailed.

The inherent weakness in the joints of the three-piece connecting rod has been pointed out, but aside from this, the design was excellent, for all the materials and manufacturing methods required were readily available, and structurally it was very sound. Tubular rods were still in use in aircraft engines in the 1920s.

The Wrights had a surprisingly thorough grasp of the metallurgy of the time, and their choice of materials could hardly have been improved upon. Generally they relied upon the more simple and commonly used metals even though more sophisticated and technically better alloys and combinations were available.[17] Case hardening was in widespread use in this period but their only utilization of it was in some parts of the drive chains purchased completely a.s.sembled and in the piston pins of their last engine. The treatment of the crankshafts of all their engines except the final 6-cylinder was typical of their uncomplicated procedure: the particular material was chosen on the basis of many years of experience with it, hardening was a very simple process, and the expedient of carrying this to a point just below the non-machinable range gave them bearing surfaces that were sufficiently hard, yet at the same time it eliminated the possibility--present in a heat-treating operation--of warping the finished piece.

[Footnote 17: Baker states that the first crankshaft was made from a slab of armor plate and if this is correct the alloy was a rather complex one of approximately .30-.35 carbon, .30-.80 manganese, .10 silicon, .04 phosphorus, .02 sulphur, 3.25-3.50 nickel, 0.00-1.90 chromium; however, all the rest of the evidence, including Orville Wright's statement to Dr. Gough, would seem to show that it was made of what was called tool steel (approximately 1.0 carbon).]

In the entire 1903 engine only five basic materials--excepting those in the purchased "magneto" and the platinum facing on the ignition-system firing points--were used: steel, cast iron, aluminum, phosphor bronze, and babbit. The steels were all plain carbon types with the exception of the sheet manifold, which contained manganese, and no doubt this was used because the sheet available came in a standard alloy of the time.

Overall, the Wright engines performed well, and in every case met or exceeded the existing requirements. Even though aircraft engines then were simpler than they became later and the design-development time much shorter, their performance stands as remarkable. As a result, the Wrights never lacked for a suitable powerplant despite the rapid growth in airplane size and performance, and the continual demand for increased power and endurance.

Few service records dating from before 1911, when the military services started keeping log books, have been found. Some of those for the period toward the end of their active era have been preserved, but for that momentous period spanning the first few years when the Wrights had the only engines in actual continuous flight operation, there seems to be essentially nothing--perhaps because there were no standard development methods or routines to follow, no requirements to be met with respect to pre-flight demonstrations or the keeping of service records. Beginning in 1904, however, and continuing as long as they were actively in business, they apparently had in progress work on one or more developmental or experimental engines. This policy, in combination with the basic simplicity of design of these engines, accounted in large measure for their ability to conduct both demonstrations and routine flying essentially whenever they chose.

Time between engine overhauls obviously varied. In mid 1906 an engine was "rebuilt after running about 12 hours." This is comparatively quite a good performance, particularly when it is remembered that essentially all the "running" was at full power output. It was considerably after 1920 before the Liberty engine was redesigned and developed to the stage where it was capable of operating 100 hours between overhauls, even though it was being used at cruising, or less than full, power for most of this time.

The Wrights of course met with troubles and failures, but it is difficult, from the limited information available, to evaluate these and judge their relative severity. Lubrication seems to have been a rather constant problem, particularly in the early years. Although some bearing lubrication troubles were encountered from time to time, this was not of major proportions, and they never had to resort to force-feed lubrication of the main or rod big-end bearings. The piston and cylinder-barrel bearing surfaces seem to have given them the most trouble by far, and examination of almost any used early Wright engine will usually show one or more pistons with evidence of scuffing in varying degrees, and this is also apparent in the photographs in the record. This is a little difficult to understand inasmuch as most of the time they had the very favorable operating condition of cast iron on cast iron. Many references to piston seizure or incipient seizure, indicated by a loss of power, occur, and this trouble may have been aggravated by the very small piston clearances utilized. Why these small clearances were continued is also not readily explainable, except that with no combination of true oil-sc.r.a.per rings, which was the basic reason why the final form of aviation piston engine was able to reach its unbelievably low oil consumptions, their large and rather weak compression rings were probably not doing an adequate job of oil control, and they were attempting to overcome this with a quite tight piston fit.[18] In any event, they did encounter scuffing or seizing pistons and cylinder over-oiling at the same time. As late as 4 May 1908 in the Wright _Papers_ there appears the notation: "The only important change has been in the oiling. The engine now feeds entirely by splash...."

[Footnote 18: Their intended piston ring tension is not known.

Measurements of samples from the 4-and 6-cylinder vertical engines vary greatly, ranging from less than 1/2 lb per sq in. to almost 1-1/4 lb. The validity of these data is very questionable as they apply to parts with unknown length of service and amount of wear. It seems quite certain, however, that even when new the unit tension figure with their wide rings was only a small fraction of that of the modern aircraft piston engine.]

Their troubles tended to concentrate in the cylinder-piston combination, as has been true of almost all piston engines. References to broken cylinders are frequent. These were quite obviously cylinder barrels, as replacement was common, and this again is not readily explainable. The material itself, according to Orville Wright, had a very high tensile strength, and in the 1903 engine more than ample material was provided, as the barrel all the way down to well below the attachment to the case was 7/32 in. thick. The exact location of the point of failure was never recorded, but in its design are many square corners serving as points of stress concentration. Also, of course, no method was then available for determining a faulty casting, except by visual observation of imperfections on the surface, and this was probably the more common cause. It is interesting, however, that the engine finally a.s.sembled in 1928 for installation in the 1903 airplane sent to England has a cracked cylinder barrel, the crack originating at a sharp corner in the slot provided at the bottom of the barrel for s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it in place.

Valve failures were also a continuing problem, and Chenoweth reports that a large proportion of the operating time of the 1904-1906 development engine was concentrated on attempts to remedy this trouble. None of their cams, including those of the 6-cylinder engine, evidence any attempt to effect a major reduction in seating velocities. United States Navy log books of 1912 and 1913 record many instances of inlet valves "broken at the weld," indicating that some of the earlier 6-cylinder engines were fitted with valves of welded construction.

For the engineer particularly, the fascination of the Wrights' engine story lies in its delineation of the essentially perfect engineering achievement by the cla.s.sic definition of engineering--to utilize the available art and science to accomplish the desired end with a minimum expenditure of time, energy, and material. Light weight and operability were the guiding considerations; these could be obtained only through constant striving for the utmost simplicity. Always modest, the Wrights seem to have been even more so in connection with their engine accomplishments. Although the a.n.a.logy is somewhat inexact, the situation is reminiscent of the truism often heard in the aircraft propulsion business--few people know the name of Paul Revere's horse. Yet, as McFarland has pointed out, "The engine was in fact far from their meanest achievement." With hardly any experience in this field and only a meagerly equipped machine shop, they designed and a.s.sembled an internal combustion engine that exceeded the specifications they had laid down as necessary for flight and had it operating in a period of about two months elapsed time. The basic form they evolved during this unequalled performance carried them through two years of such successful evolutionary flight development that their flying progressed from a hop to mastery of the art. And the overall record of their powerplants shows them to have been remarkably reliable in view of the state of the internal combustion engine at that time.

Appendix

Characteristics of the Wright Flight Engines

------------------------------------------------------------------------- _1903 _1904-1905 _1908-1911 _1911-1915 First flight Experimental Demonstrations service_ engine[a]_ flights_ and service_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cyl./Form 4/flat 4/flat 4/vertical 6/vertical Bore and stroke (in.) 44 4-1/84 4-3/84 4-3/84-1/2 Displacement (cu. in.) 201 214 240 406 Horsepower 8.25-16 15-21 28-42 50-75 RPM 670-1200 1070-1360 1325-1500 1400-1560 MEP 49-53 52-57 70-87 70-94 Weight (lb) 140-180 160-170 160-180 265-300 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Footnote a: Concurrently with the Wrights' first engine work, Manly was developing the engine for the Langley Aerodrome, and a comparison of the Wrights' engine development with that of Manly is immediately suggested, but no meaningful comparison of the two efforts can be drawn. Beyond the objective of producing a power unit to accomplish human flight and the fact that all three individuals were superb mechanics, the two efforts had nothing in common. The Wrights' goal was an operable and reasonably lightweight unit to be obtained quickly and cheaply. Manly's task was to obtain what was for the time an inordinately light engine and, although the originally specified power was considerably greater than that of the Wrights, it was still reasonable even though Manly himself apparently increased it on the a.s.sumption that Langley would need more power than he thought. The cost and time required were very much greater than the Wrights expended. He ended up with an engine of extraordinary performance for its time, containing many features utilized in much later important service engines. His weight per horsepower was not improved upon for many years. The Wrights' engine proved its practicability in actual service. The Manly engine never had this opportunity but its successful ground tests indicated an equal potential in this respect.

A description of the Langley-Manly engine and the history of its development is contained in _Smithsonian Annals of Flight_ number 6, "Langley's Aero Engine of 1903," by Robert B. Meyer (xi+193 pages, 44 figures; Smithsonian Inst.i.tution Press, 1971)]

It is not possible to state the exact quant.i.ties of each engine that the Wrights produced up to the time that their factory ceased operation in 1915. Chenoweth gives an estimate, based on the recollection of their test foreman, of 100 vertical 4s and 50 6s. My estimate (see page 2) places the total of all engines at close to 200.

Original Wright-built engines of all four of these basic designs are in existence, although they are rather widely scattered. The Smithsonian's National Air and s.p.a.ce Museum has examples of them all, including, of course, the unique first-flight engine. Their condition varies, but many are operable, or could easily be made so. Among the best are the first-flight engine and the last vertical 6, at the Smithsonian, the first vertical 6, at the United States Air Force Museum, and the vertical 4, at the Carillon Park Museum.

The Wrights were constantly experimenting and altering, and this in connection with the lack of complete records makes it almost impossible to state with any certainty specific performances of individual engines at given times. Weights sometimes included accessories and at others did not. Often they were of the complete powerplant unit, including radiator and water and fuel, with no clarification. In the table, performance is given in ranges which are thought to be the most representative of those actually utilized.

Occasionally performances were attained even beyond the ranges given.

For example, the 44-in. flat development engine eventually demonstrated 25 hp at an MEP of approximately 65 psi.

One important figure--the horsepower actually utilized during the first flight--is quite accurately known. In 1904 the 1904-1905 flight engine, after having been calibrated by their p.r.o.ny-brake test-fan method, was used to turn the 1903 flight propellers, and Orville Wright calculated this power to be 12.05 bhp by comparing the calibrated engine results with those obtained with the flight engine at Kitty Hawk when tested under similar conditions. However, since the tests were conducted in still air with the engine stationary, this did not exactly represent the flight condition. No doubt the rotational speed of the engine and propellers increased somewhat with the forward velocity of the airplane so that unless the power-rpm curve of the engine was flat, the actual horsepower utilized was probably a small amount greater than Orville's figures. The lowest power figure shown for this engine is that of its first operation.

No fuel consumption figures are given, primarily because no comprehensive data have been found. This is most probably because in the early flight years, when the Wrights were so meticulously measuring and recording technical information on the important factors affecting their work, the flights were of such short duration that fuel economy was of very minor importance. After success had been achieved, they ceased to keep detailed records on very much except their first interest--the flying machine itself--and when the time of longer flights arrived, the fuel consumption that resulted from their best engine design efforts was simply accepted. The range obtained became mostly a matter of aerodynamic design and weight carried.

Orville Wright quotes an early figure of brake thermal efficiency for the 1903 engine that gives a specific fuel consumption of .580 lb of fuel per bhp/hr based on an estimate of the heating value of the fuel they had. This seems low, considering the compression ratio and probable leakage past their rather weak piston rings, but it is possible. In an undated entry, presumably in 1905, Orville Wright's notebook covered fuel consumption in terms of miles of flight; one of the stated a.s.sumptions in the entry is, "One horsepower consumes .60 pounds per horsepower hour"--still quite good for the existing conditions. Published figures for the 6-60 engine centered around .67 lb/hp hr for combined fuel and oil consumption.

The Wright Shop Engine

Despite the fact that the Wright shop engine was not a flight unit, it is interesting both because it was a well designed stationary powerplant with several exceedingly ingenious features, and because its complete success was doubtless a major factor in the Wrights'

decision to design and build their own first flight engine. Put in service in their small shop in the fall of 1901, it was utilized in the construction of engine and airframe parts during the vital years from 1902 through 1908 and, in addition, it provided the sole means of determining the power output of all of their early flight engines. By means of a p.r.o.ny brake, its power output was carefully measured and from this the amount of power required for it to turn certain fans or test clubs was determined. These were then fitted to the flight engines and the power developed calculated from the speed at which the engines under test would turn the calibrated clubs. Although a somewhat complex method of using power per explosion of the shop engine was made necessary by the basic governor control of the engine, the final figures calculated by means of the propeller cube law seem to have been surprisingly accurate.[19] Restored under the personal direction of Charles Taylor, it is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, together with the shop machinery it operated.

[Footnote 19: _The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright_, volume 2, Appendix.]

The engine was a single cylinder, 4-stroke-cycle "hot-tube" ignition type. The cylinder, of cast iron quite finely and completely finned for its day, was air-cooled, or rather, air-radiated, as there was no forced circulation of air over it, the atmosphere surrounding the engine simply soaking up the dissipated heat. Although this was possibly a desirable adjunct in winter, inside the small shop in Dayton, the temperature there in summer must have been quite high at times. The operating fuel was city illuminating gas, which was also utilized to heat, by means of a burner, the ignition tube. This part was of copper, with one completely closed end positioned directly in the burner flame; the other end was open and connected the interior of the tube to the combustion chamber. The inlet valve was of the usual automatic type while the exhaust valve was mechanically operated. The fuel gas flow was controlled by a separate valve mechanically connected to the inlet valve so that the opening of the inlet valve also opened the gas valve, and gas and air were carried into the cylinder together.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Figure 16._--Shop engine, 1901, showing governor and exhaust valve cam. (Photo courtesy R. V. Kerley.)]

The engine was of normal stationary powerplant design, having a heavy base and two heavy flywheels, one on each side of the crank. These were necessary to ensure reasonably uniform rotational speed, as, in addition to having only one cylinder, the governing was of the hit-and-miss type. It had a 67-in. bore and stroke and would develop slightly over 3 hp at what was apparently its normal operating speed of 447 rpm, which gives an MEP of 27 psi.

The engine is noteworthy not only for its very successful operation but also because it incorporated two quite ingenious features. One was the speed-governing mechanism. As in the usual hit-and-miss operation, the engine speed was maintained at a constant value, the output then being determined by the number of power strokes necessary to accomplish this. The governor proper was a cylindrical weight free to slide along its axis on a shaft fastened longitudinally to a spoke of one of the flywheels. A spring forced it toward the center of the wheel, while centrifugal force pulled it toward the rim against the spring pressure. After each opening of the valve the exhaust-valve actuating lever was automatically locked in the valve-open position by a spring-loaded pawl, or catch. The lever had attached to it a small side extension, or bar, which, when properly forced, would release the catch and free the actuating lever. This bar was so positioned as to be contacted by the governor weight when the engine speed was of the desired value or lower, thus maintaining regular valve operation; but an excessive speed would move the governor weight toward the rim and the exhaust valve would then be held in the open position during the inlet stroke, so no cylinder charge would be ingested. Since the ignition was not mechanically timed, the firing of the charge was dependent only on the compression of the inlet charge in the cylinder, so it made no difference whether the governor caused the engine to cease firing for an odd or even number of revolutions, even though the engine was operating on a 4-stroke cycle at all times.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Figure 17._--Shop engine, 1901, showing operation of exhaust valve cam. (Pratt & Whitney drawing.)]

The exhaust valve operating cam was even more ingenious. To obtain operation on a 4-stroke cycle and still avoid the addition of a half-speed camshaft, a cam traveling at crankshaft speed was made to operate the exhaust valve every other revolution (see Figure 17). It consisted of a very slim quarter-moon outline fastened to a disc on the crankshaft by a single bearing bolt through its middle which served as the pivot about which it moved. Just enough clearance was provided between the inside of the quarter-moon and the crankshaft to allow the pa.s.sage of the cam-follower roller. The quarter-moon, statically balanced and free to move about its pivot, basically had two positions. In one the leading edge was touching the shaft (Figure 17b), so that when the cam came to the cam follower, the follower was forced to go over the top of the cam, thus opening the exhaust valve.

When the cam pivot point had pa.s.sed the roller, the pressure of the exhaust valve spring forced the following edge of the cam into contact with the shaft and this movement, which separated the leading edge of the cam from the shaft, provided sufficient s.p.a.ce between it and the shaft for the roller to enter (Figure 17c). Thus, when the leading edge of the cam next reached the roller, the roller, being held against the crankshaft by the valve spring pressure (Figure 17d), entered the s.p.a.ce between the cam and the shaft and there was no actuation of the valve. In exiting from the s.p.a.ce, it raised the trailing edge of the cam, forcing the leading edge against the shaft (Figure 17a) so that at the next meeting a normal valve opening would take place. The cam was maintained by friction alone in the position in which it was set by the roller, but since the amount of this could be adjusted to any value, it could be easily maintained sufficient to offset the small centrifugal force tending to put the cam in a neutral position.[20]

[Footnote 20: The Wrights apparently never applied for an engine patent of any kind. This no doubt grew out of their att.i.tude of regarding the engine as an accessory and deprecating their work in this field. A reasonably complete patent search indicates that this particular cam device has never been patented, although a much more complex arrangement accomplishing the same purpose was patented in 1900, and a patent application on a cam-actuating mechanism substantially identical to that of the Wrights and intended for use in a golf practice apparatus is pending at the present time.]

Bibliography

ANGLE, GLENN D. Wright. Pages 521-523 in _Airplane Engine Encyclopedia, an Alphabetically Arranged Compilation of All Available Data on the World's Airplane Engines_. Dayton, Ohio: The Otterbein Press, 1921.

BAKER, MAX P. The Wright Brothers as Aeronautical Engineers. _Annual Report of ... the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution ... for the Year Ended June 30, 1950_, pages 209-223, 4 figures, 9 plates.

BEAUMOUNT, WILLIAM WORBY. _Motor Vehicles and Motors: Their Design, Construction, and Working by Steam, Oil, and Electricity._ 2 volumes.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1901-1902.

CHENOWETH, OPIE. Power Plants Built by the Wright Brothers. _S.A.E.

Quarterly Transactions_ (January 1951), 5:14-17.

FOREST, FERNAND. _Les Bateaux automobiles._ Paris: H. Dunod et E.

Pinat, editeurs, 1906.

GOUGH, DR. H. J. Materials of Aircraft Construction. _Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society_ (November 1938), 42:922-1032. Ill.u.s.trated.

KELLY, FRED C. _Miracle at Kitty Hawk; the Letters of Wilbur and Orville Wright._ New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951.

---------- _The Wright Brothers, a Biography Authorized by Orville Wright._ New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1943.