Talk:Macchi M.C.72

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One engine or two?[edit]

thumb| The video linked at the bottom of this article clearly shows one propeller at a time starting to rotate, as the engine driving it starts. So this and other descriptions should call it a two engine airplane, engines in tandem but both driving puller propellers, with opposite rotation. But how did the rear engine drive its propeller? The shaft can't go through a hole in the crank shaft of the front engine because the connecting rods would hit it. There must be a shaft under the front engine to transmit the power? David R. Ingham (talk) 06:41, 22 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's one engine, as it has always been described as such, some features were shared, and it has no ability to operate as two separate engines. Although it was indeed developed by grafting two V12s together, and they retain separate and uncoupled crankshafts.
It's a V engine, and the shaft from the rear block runs above the forward block, in the valley of the V. I don't recall if this ran at crankshaft speed, or at propeller speed (i.e. if the reduction gear was at the crankshaft or the propeller ends of the shaft). The propellers contra-rotated, I think the engines did too - their design was constructed by reflecting one block behind the other (look at the cam drive gears), not just by placing one behind the other. As is usual in such cases, the two shafts are concentric (at least through the propeller hub) so that the rear block drives the front propeller and v.v. Andy Dingley (talk) 09:47, 22 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If it has always been described as one engine, we should conform, but with no mechanical connection and one starting at a time, tandem would seem more descriptive. Engines in the same nacelle with propellers at opposite ends are described as tandem. I spoke 75 years too late. 99.170.145.115 (talk) 20:46, 22 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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