Stormeruk wrote:probably old biplane radial thing , sopwith camel......
in fact heres 1
apparently the throttle has a huge range
(on of off)
must make razzing out of bends exciting...
It is indeed an aircraft engine, most likelly from a commerical twin like the latest pipers.
However its NOT like a sopwith camel as these had rotary engines which use triangular pistons (rx7 anyone?). The engine above is a RADIAL engine which describes the odd circular postioning of the cyllanders. The reason being that the pistons fire against each other therefore reduing CoG spin and perfect for aircraft as theres less trimming needed. Theres also something to do with the engine wash produced but im not sure about that.
The sopwith did have a ON/OFF throttle postion, your correct as most rotary engines of the era didnt have throttles....its the landing at full wack thats the fun part.....