Rotary Engine - Use in Cars and Motorcycles

Use in Cars and Motorcycles

Although rotary engines were mostly used in aircraft, a few cars and motorcycles were built with rotary engines. A famous motorcycle, winning many races, was the Megola, which had a rotary engine inside the front wheel. Another motorcycle with a rotary engine was Charles Redrup's 1912 Redrup Radial, which was a three-cylinder 303 cc rotary engine fitted to a number of motorcycles by Redrup.

In 1904 the Barry engine, also designed by Redrup, was built in Wales: a rotating 2-cylinder boxer engine weighing 6.5 kg was mounted inside a motorcycle frame.

In the 1940s Cyril Pullin developed the Powerwheel, a wheel with a rotating one-cylinder engine, clutch and drum brake inside the hub, but it never entered production.

Cars with rotary engines were built by American companies Adams-Farwell, Bailey, Balzer and Intrepid, amongst others.