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Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

The rotary engine tech in a DHC beaver is barely changed from WW2 era rotary piston engines... Assuming we're not talking about the more modern turbine beavers and otters.

The turbine ones already run on Jet-A

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And I think that Kenmore Air is the main operator out of Lake Union, and they're mostly or all turbine.

Given that the DHC-2 Beaver was introduced in 1948, that’s not too surprising.

Rotary or radial?

Radial.

My brain was clearly not working right when I wrote that, though the mental image of a Mazda RX-7 engine strapped to the front of a beaver is certainly amusing.

Wonder if anybody ever tried that. Somebody must have, decided the gallons per hour was ridiculously high, and abandoned the idea.

In a similar way, there are kit planes which use EJ and EA series Subaru engines. These tend to be a bit more fuel efficient than Mazda rotaries though.

They're used in drones

https://www.aieuk.com/wankel-rotary-uav-engines/

There have been many attempts with the 13B. One I saw it all worked, except the exhaust system. Builder went through everything, built 3 or 4 of them. The last was made out of titanium welded by guys who worked for a defense contractor.

Failed in flight like the rest of them. He ended up with a lycoming.

In the early days of aviation there were actually rotary engines that were like radials, but where the entire engine rotated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_engine

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