PACKARD Diesel Radial Aircraft Engines

[41chevy]

Yup! Packard designed, produced and set a record in 1931 of 84 hours and 32 minutes non stop with the diesel powered plane. That stood until 1988 when Rutan's Voyager broke it. They later powered the U.S.Navy Air ships pre WWII.

The Diesel Radial was interesting as it had Packard/Juno designed cam activated fuel injectors. For simplicity Packard engineers designed it as a ONE valve per cylinder the worked very well.

 

 

https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/85-hours-in-1931-airplane-180968358/

 

This Ebook explains how Packards one valve per cylinder Diesel worked and how it was very fuel efficient.

 

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/31023/31023-h/31023-h.htm

 

Woman's Altitude record in 1932

 

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/packard-dr-980/

 

The coil is an simple  oil cooler that also added 5 gallons capacity to the system.

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by 41chevy

[RoadwayR]

Caterpillar built what amounted to a diesel conversion of the Wright Cyclone radial aircraft engine for tanks in WWII.  I saw a running one once.  Very loud......  

[kscarbel2]

The Junkers Ju 86 bomber (later replaced by the He 111) was fitted with Junkers Jumo 205 diesel engines.

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[Phase 1]

The diesel aircraft engine evolved into the jet engine.

[41chevy]

On 4/5/2020 at 8:46 AM, kscarbel2 said:

The Junkers Ju 86 bomber (later replaced by the He 111) was fitted with Junkers Jumo 205 diesel engines.

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Jumo 205 diesel engine, the 900-hp Jumo 207A equipped with two superchargers, nitrous oxide injection and wide paddle bladed wood props. The JU 86R and P1 were designed to be a high altitude bomber / recon aircraft with a pressurized cabin. A first for military aircraft. Side note Jumo licensed the Packard designed injectors in the early 1930's until Junkers  worked with Bosch to develop a stand alone injector pump for their diesel aircraft engines which was than used by Junkers, Jumo and Blohm and Voss.

BV138 Diesel powered ocean recon able to double it's range by fueling at sea from ships.

The tank diesel radial that ROADWAY mentioned was a Guiberson 9 cylinder radial diesel built under war dept regulations by  Cat and General motors for the Allied light and medium tanks and also Pacific theater landing craft. 1020 cubic inches , 310 t0 500 shaft h.p..

Guiberson was a Texas bases oil industry equipment manufacture. They bought the rights to manufacture the Packard A980 diesel in 1932 to adapt to drill rigs and about 1939  1940 designed the 1020 for track laying units.

 

BV138

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by 41chevy

[mowerman]

very interesting,,,,i was also wondering what they sounded like,,,,,the gasoline radial.....sounds real cool....thanks for the post....bob

[Vladislav]

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting. Also enjoyed reading the story by the link.