The aero engine and its progress—fifty years after Griffith

Abstract

The powerplant has always played a vital role in the development of aviation. In the beginning, the crucial need was for an engine of high enough power-to-weight ratio to enable the aircraft to fly at all. The Wright brothers had to build their own, and they took to the air with a four cylinder petrol engine having a specific weight of around 15 lb/hp. Much progress was made over the next two decades, and by the mid-nineteen twenties this figure was down to about 2 lb/hp. The aeroplane was now emerging from its infancy; the Atlantic had been flown, and the Otto cycle engine had established itself as successfully in the air as on the road.