Rotary engine

Rotary engine is a term which can have two meanings:

World War I aircraft engine

A rotary piston engine was a 4-stroke aircraft engine used during World War I, similar to a radial engine, but with a stationary crankshaft and rotating crankcase and cylinders.

Unconventional heat engine

• The other meaning of rotary engine is the rotary combustion engine, an internal combustion engine which is neither a gas turbine nor a reciprocating engine. The Wankel engine, which is a 4-stroke engine with a triangular rotor separating combustion areas inside a peanut-shaped chamber, is the most famous such engine. Another recent rotary engine concept is the Quasiturbine. Other rotary engine designs are the Tschudi engine which has curved pistons moving in a toroidal cylinder, the Kauertz engine and the Bradshaw engine .