“RCV” in the name RCV Engines is an abbreviation of Rotating, Cylinder, Valve, given to describe the range of engines that the company began making for the hobby market back in 1997.
While the model engines are no longer manufactured and the technology has evolved significantly in the years since, the name is still very much valid.
In today’s iterations of engines, the valve rotates within a bore at the top of the cylinder and is crank driven. Previously, the cylinder contained a rotating sleeve which incorporated the valve.
There are several advantages to the RCV approach, first and foremost being the combustion system, which has been described by leading engine specialists as “near perfect”. It is this ideal combustion system that sets RCV Engines apart from other technologies — read the full article to find out how and why.
The combustion system is the means by which an engine mixes air and fuel together, burns it within a combustion chamber, and uses the resultant rise in pressure to produce mechanical power.
An ideal combustion system will have two main characteristics:
- Firstly, the fuel and air must be thoroughly mixed. This ensures that all the fuel has access to oxygen to enable it to burn.
- Secondly the combustion chamber must be a compact shape. This both minimizes the amount of heat lost to the engine body, and enables the flame front to rapidly spread throughout the entire charge.
The rotating valve combustion chamber fulfils both of these ideal characteristics. The rotation of the valve generates a high level of turbulence which mixes the fuel and air thoroughly. The combustion chamber is contained with the rotating valve body and is very compact.
The outcome is that RCV’s engines are easy starting, powerful, and reliable on both gasoline and heavy fuels (JET A1/JP5/JP8). Furthermore, all of the RCV engines are high performance 4-stroke engine. They produce similar power to a 2 stroke, but are significantly more fuel efficient, typically using between 30% and 50% less fuel for a given mission than a standard 2 stroke.
An added benefit of using an RCV engine is that it requires little maintenance and has long service intervals. The simple rotary motion of the valve means that it requires no adjustment. The spark plug is shielded from a significant part of the fuel burn which protects it from carbonisation. As a result, service intervals are approximately 250 hours.
