Oscillating piston internal combustion engine

An internal combustion engine, comprising:

• an engine block,
• at least one pair of cylinders mounted in tangentially-opposed relation on diametrically opposite sides of an axis through the block,
• means mounting said cylinders for rotation in a bank in unison in a substantially annular path about said axis with one end of each cylinder leading and the other end trailing,
• a double-acting piston displaceable axially in each cylinder between opposite ends thereof,
• means mounting said pistons for axial movement in said cylinders and for rotation in unison about said axis,
• means for alternately admitting a combustible mixture to the leading ends and to the trailing ends of the cylinders,
• means for igniting said combustible mixtures in timed relation with the rotation of the cylinders about said axis,
• means for exhausting the ignited mixture from said cylinders as they rotate about said axis,
• an output shaft journalled in said engine block, and
• gearing means in said engine block directly connecting said cylinder mounting means and said piston mounting means together and to said output shaft for affording controlled relative motion between the pistons and the cylinders and for converting said relative motion into unidirectional rotation of said output shaft said gearing means including a differential gear assembly having a pair of input ring gears rotatable relative to one another, a pair of output planetary gears engaging said ring gears, and a yoke connected to said output shaft and rotatably mounting said planetary gears, a first gear train connecting one of said input ring gears to said cylinder mounting means, a second gear train connecting the other of said input ring gears to said piston mounting means, one of said gear trains including a complementary pair of sector gears interengaged with one another, one of said pair of sector gears being rotatable in synchronism with said cylinder mounting means and the other of said pair of sector gears being rotatable in synchronism with said piston mounting means, whereby the sector gears cooperate with the gear trains to impart unidirectional output torque to said output shaft.