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How do rotary airplane engines work? Are there different crankshafts for different cylinders?

How many rod journals are on a twelve cylinder engine?

Public Comments

1. Rotary engines were used during the first world war. A radial is where the cylinders around the crankshaft that in turn rotates the prop. A rotary is the opposite. They look similar but the crankshaft is stationary and the whole engine rotates around the crankshaft and the prop is connected to the engine case. With heavy mass of the engine rotating the gyro forces were huge which made the planes difficult to control.
2. It's kind of hard to explain, there is a master or main rod that is actually part of the crankshaft then the others articulate around the crankshaft. For a real good explanation look here. http://www.aviation-history.com/engines/radial.htm
3. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/rotary-engine.htm
4. Are you asking about a rotary engine or radial engine? I'm not sure if there are any acft out there with a rotary engine in it.
5. mjw2029 has it right. there were no 12 cylinder rotary engines. The largest had five, i believe and there were a bunch of 3 cylinders. Both rotary and radials have an uneven number of cylinders, 5, 7, 9, 11, for single row and 14 or 28 for multi row radials. Looks like some folks are confusing the aircraft rotary engine with the Wankel in autos.