Air-cooled, four-stroke aviation engine
AssigneeTextron Innovations Inc.
InventorsPatrick Henry Baer, Michael Glynn Glucksman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved air-cooled aviation engine includes a compact combustion chamber having an intake valve opening, an exhaust valve opening, and a generally elliptical shape. The elliptical shape has a major axis and a minor axis, with the major axis intersecting both the intake valve opening and the exhaust valve opening. In some examples, the major axis is the same length or shorter than a diameter of a cylinder bore of the engine, and the minor axis is smaller than the major axis. Combustion is thus constrained to a smaller area than that of the cylinder bore.
Claims11
An engine, comprising:
- an engine block having a cylinder bore that contains a piston constructed and arranged to move reciprocally within the cylinder bore;
- and
- a cylinder head having an interior surface that faces the cylinder bore, the interior surface having an intake valve opening, an exhaust valve opening, a first crescent-shaped squish region, and a second crescent-shaped squish region,
- wherein the intake valve opening and the exhaust valve opening are disposed between the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region, and
- wherein the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region are constructed and arranged to direct more of an air-fuel mixture toward the exhaust valve opening than toward the intake valve opening during compression;
- wherein an elliptical combustion chamber is disposed between the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region, the elliptical combustion chamber extending over a cross-sectional area smaller than a cross-sectional area of the cylinder bore.
A method of operating an engine, the engine including:
- an engine block having a cylinder bore that contains a piston constructed and arranged to move reciprocally within the cylinder bore, and
- a cylinder head having an interior surface that faces the cylinder bore, the interior surface having an intake valve opening, an exhaust valve opening, a first crescent-shaped squish region, and a second crescent-shaped squish region,
- wherein the intake valve opening and the exhaust valve opening are disposed between the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region,
- the method comprising:
- moving the piston to compress an air-fuel mixture inside the cylinder bore such that the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region direct more of the air-fuel mixture toward the exhaust valve opening than toward the intake valve opening;
- and
- as the piston approaches an uppermost position within the cylinder bore, igniting the air-fuel mixture to provide mechanical power;
- wherein an elliptical combustion chamber is disposed between the first crescent-shaped squish region and the second crescent-shaped squish region, the elliptical combustion chamber extending over a cross-sectional area smaller than a cross-sectional area of the cylinder bore.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.