9 cylinder radial diesel engine (edit)
 

Here are some pix of the above mentioned engine. My father volunteers for an organization known as the "Dixie Wing of the Commorative Air Force". They fly and maintain vintage WWII aircraft. Including his favorite, A P51 Mustang. They also have a small museum. One of the pieces is this rare diesel aircraft engine. They say this one came from a tank, but they where also used in aircraft. I'm not sure which ones. The tag on the engine reads "Gruber Diesel, Better Safe Than Sorry" I thought some of you guys may get a kick out of this.

Anyway, They are located in Peachtree City GA.
Come by and check it out!

that is sweet, i wana put that in my benz! :D :D

wow. cool!

"She wasn't the fastest plane, but she climbed as fast as she flew." :P

omg ive always wanted to put something like that in a car, what the hp?

Cool. I think technically that is a radial engine and not a rotary engine, particularly if it was in a tank. With radial engines the crankshaft turns while the engine is still. With rotarys, the engine turns and the crankshaft is still with the propeller attached to the block and not the crank. Rotaries were common in WWI aircraft I believe but they dropped out of favor partly because the huge rotating mass of the engine caused strange handling characteristics for the plane.

Correct! A radial engine will make the plane fly a slow, very slow, lazy turn in one direction because the engine is turning over in the other direction, but when the engine is a rotary, it tries to make the airplane do a barrel roll!:eek: Could be fun until it happens when you let go of the controls!

Because of this, radial engines were considered much safer and the airplane would remain relatively stable in flight on it's own. I worked on a couple desigs of rortary diesels when I was an engineer for Chrysler. These had advantages we now attribute to the two stroke, capable of starting up easily with maximum power output very fast! The rotary was however incredibly expensive to build and maintain, so the radial was adopted. The rotary was most often used in cooling systems where immdiate refrigeration was required and land based and was experimental in getting big loads moving fast, like a tanker truck filled with water used by firefighters!

whoops
 

Correct, radial engine.

I dunno, I tried to take some close ups of the info tag. But they didn't turn out. Maybe some photoshop wizard here can blow up one of the pix large enough so the tag could be read. :D

There is info available on the net about a Guiberson diesel radial as well.. I believe they put it in a Stinson Reliant for testing. Apparently it performed well, with excellent fuel economy and reliability, but it never really took hold.. I think many of the engines that were built were put in service as generators for small towns and the like... Very simple looking engine, VERY COOL!!! I'm jealous, I hope I can see one up close someday!

I was always under the impression that both were radial designs, but different implementations... I thought that rotary engines were the Wenkle triangular lobe engines... like used in helicopters and mazda Rx7/8's ...

Like in some rotary engines in WWI Fighter planes. The Crankshaft is stationary and the the rest of the engine revolves around the crank. In a Radial engine Crankshaft turns.

When I read rotary, I think of Wankle engine too. But the original rotary was the stationary crankshaft rotating engine. It was used in a motorcycle besides aircraft and comprised the front wheel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megola

I think this outfit builds them now. http://www.zoche.de/

Here's another early model Diesel aircraft engine from Packard:

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=845

Thielert is another manufacturer...

http://www.thielert.com/