Rotary internal combustion engine

The Millet engine, probably the first rotary engine designed as early as 1887, featured 5 cylinders arranged in a rotating star configuration around a fixed crankshaft. It was fitted with revolving spool valve timing, fuelled by petrol and ignited by spark plugs. It equipped Millet's tricycle, one of which is on display at the Musée des Arts et Métiers du Cnam in Paris.

In the aeronautical field, so-called rotary engines are a famous class of aircraft engines, built in particular before the First World War. In 1907, the Séguin brothers designed an original engine characterized by the rotation of the crankcase and propeller assembly around the fixed crankshaft (figure 45...