Aircraft technical Basics: Aircraft Engines - RAF Flying Training Manual - Chapter VII.- Engines: Table of Contents

Royal Air Force - Flying Training Manual; Part I-Landplanes, Air Publication 129, Revised June 1940 (Reprinted April, 1941, incorporating A.L. No. 1); Air Ministry; Chapter VII.- Engines

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

1. The engine provides the power needed to propel an aeroplane through the air. If it ceases to do so, sustained flight becomes impossible and the aeroplane cannot fulfil the duty allotted to it. Every pilot should therefore understand the working and proper handling of his engine so that the faithful service of which an aero-engine is capable, if sympathetically handled, may be ensured. Most pilots will already have some interest in, and elementary knowledge of, internal combustion engines as applied to motor cars and motor cycles, this chapter is intended to provide a kind of stepping stone from this to the more detailed and technical descriptions of individual types which are given in the appropriate official handbooks. It is important for pilots to have this knowledge because not only does it make the handling and maintenance of the engine easier and more interesting, but it may enable them to avoid unwitting abuse to which modern highly-stressed engines are sensitive. More-over, should trouble develop away from his Unit, the pilot may be able to save a great deal of time and trouble if he can diagnose, even roughly, the cause of failure. It will be understood that Service engines differ among themselves very much in the detail of design, and although individual types may be quoted in this chapter as examples of some special feature, full descriptions of the engines must be sought in their own handbooks.