Rotary piston engine

In an engine having a casing with fuel-air intake and exhaust openings, a rotor assembly with an axial output shaft carried by said casing, fixed shaft means on said casing offset radially from the rotor assembly axis and extending inwardly for rotor assembly engagement, the improvement comprising,

• said rotor assembly defining closed end combustion chambers and a fuel-air chamber, a piston yoke assembly reciprocally carried by said rotor assembly and comprising pistons and a yoke portion interconnecting said pistons, said pistons reciprocal within said combustion chambers, igniter means, said yoke portion having seal means extending thereacross, said yoke portion reciprocal within said fuel-air chamber to pressurize fuel-air charges for alternate delivery to said combustion chambers, said yoke portion defining an elongate opening transverse to projected piston axes and receiving said fixed shaft means whereby rotor assembly rotation imparts reciprocal motion to the piston yoke assembly, ignition of a fuel-air charge within a combustion chamber causing said piston yoke assembly to impart forces to the remaining rotor assembly to drive same about the rotor assembly axis, said rotor assembly being substantially elliptical in elevational shape and defining openings parallel to and radially offset from the rotor assembly axis for air passage with rotor ends each having a peripheral surface portion substantially corresponding in curvature to the inner surface of the casing wall and closely adjacent thereto, said rotor assembly ends along with the casing annular wall partially defining crescent-shaped exhaust chambers.

A rotary internal combustion engine comprising,

• a fixed casing having an internal cylindrical wall surface defining a chamber and having openings for the admission of a fuel-air mixture and for exhausting combustion products, said casing having apertured end plates for passage of a coolant,
• an elliptical rotor assembly for rotation within said casing chamber about a first axis, said rotor assembly defining combustion chambers closed at their outer ends by the rotor assembly structure, and a fuel-air chamber, said rotor assembly also defining intake and exhaust ports, said intake ports communicating the fuel-air chamber with said combustion chambers, a piston yoke assembly including oppositely projecting pistons and an interconnecting yoke for reciprocal travel within the fuel-air chamber, said yoke having seals extending thereacross, said piston reciprocal travel causing a major length of each piston to move into the fuel-air chamber, said piston yoke assembly rotatable about a second axis offset from the rotor assembly axis, said yoke having first and second fuel compressing surfaces, said yoke reciprocable in said fuel-air chamber to alternately pressurize a fuel-air mixture therein, a fuel-air mixture compressing yoke surface being remote from the combustion chamber served thereby, ignition components carried by said rotor assembly,
• said casing and rotor assembly jointly defining an area through which fuel and air enter said fuel-air chamber,
• fixed means on said casing in engagement with said yoke portion to constrain same to rotation about said second axis to thereby impart reciprocal movement to the piston yoke assembly relative the remaining rotor assembly structure to sequentially compress fuel-air charges within said combustion chambers with ignition of same imparting rotational force to the rotor assembly, and
• said rotor assembly being of substantially elliptical configuration with rotor assembly ends each having a peripheral surface portion closely adjacent the inner surface of the casing walls so as to partially define separate exhaust chambers into each of which an exhaust port discharges.