Rotary engine

A two-stroke reciprocating piston engine assembly including:

• a crankcase assembly;
• a crankshaft assembly supported by said crankcase assembly for rotating about a crankshaft axis;
• a cylinder assembly rotatable relative to said crankcase assembly about said crankshaft assembly, said cylinder assembly having an uneven number of radial cylinders spaced evenly about the crankshaft axis;
• respective piston assemblies connected to said crankshaft assembly for reciprocation respectively within said radial cylinders;
• cylinder closure means supported fixedly by said crankcase assembly for closing said cylinders and having a part-spherical inner closure surface sealably engaged with the cylinders;
• inlet ports and outlet ports through said part-spherical inner closure surface through which fluid may be introduced into and expelled from said cylinders respectively, the inlet and outlet ports being grouped in evenly circumferentially spaced pairs of inlet ports and exhaust ports and the number of pairs of circumferentially spaced pairs of inlet ports and exhaust ports being equal to one more than the number of cylinders;
• timing means interconnecting the crankshaft assembly to the cylinder assembly such that said cylinder assembly will rotate in an opposite direction to said crankshaft assembly at a rotational speed equal to the rotational speed of said crankshaft assembly divided by the number of cylinders.

An engine assembly including:

• a crankcase assembly;
• a crankshaft assembly supported by said crankcase assembly;
• a cylinder assembly rotatable relative to said crankcase assembly about said crankshaft assembly, said cylinder assembly having an uneven number of cylinders disposed radially about the crankshaft assembly and with their axes in a common radial plane containing the cylinder axes;
• respective piston assemblies connected to said crankshaft assembly for operation within said cylinders;
• cylinder closure means supported fixedly by said crankcase assembly for closing said cylinders and having an operatively continuous inner closure surface sealably and slidably engaged with the cylinders;
• inlet ports and outlet ports through said inner closure surface through which fluid can be cyclically introduced into or expelled from said cylinders, the inlet ports and outlet ports being grouped in pairs of circumferentially spaced inlet ports and exhaust ports, and
• the number of pairs of circumferentially spaced pairs of inlet and exhaust ports being equal to ›2.div.s!.times.›1+n! wherein:
• s=the number of piston strokes per cyclic induction, compression, expansion, and exhaust process, and
• n=the number of cylinders;
• timing means interconnecting the crankshaft assembly to the cylinder assembly such that said cylinder assembly rotates in an opposite direction to said crankshaft assembly at a rotational speed equal to the rotational speed of said crankshaft assembly divided by the number of cylinders, wherein:
• the inlet ports of each said pair of inlet ports and outlet ports include a primary circumferentially extending port which extends substantially radially through said cylinder closure means and across said common radial plane and communicating with a primary barrel of a fuel/air supply device for supply of fuel or air to the engine during low speed operation of the engine, and a secondary circumferentially extending port disposed offset from the common radial plane and communicating with a secondary barrel of a fuel/air supply device for supply of fuel or air to the engine only during high speed operation of the engine.