Any technology that originates from early aviation is plain awesome. However, what should you do when you desire to create a radial engine in a dormitory where combustion engine would be ill-advised? For two University of Washington students the solution is quite intriguing. They decided to go with solenoids instead of pistons. The easiest way for such a project is to work with a microcontroller. However, these students took a different approach in order to build their solenoid radial engine. They decided to control timing with a simple distributor. This operates in a similar way to a combustion engine`s spark distributor.
The simple distributor is delivering the power to activate the solenoids instead of delivering an ignition spark. The fact that they used such simple tools in order to achieve this is very fascinating. People who have more expensive tools could`ve just CNC cut or 3D printed most of the components. Jeffrey Weng and Connor Lee did this with simple tools such as a drill press and a band saw. Maybe this solenoid radial engine lacks in beauty, but it definitely makes up with ingenuity. Check out the video below and tell us what you think.
Finally, click here to read the pros and cons of different types of engines.
