Felix Heinrich Wankel was a German mechanical engineer and inventor after whom the Wankel engine was named.
Wankel in the 1960s
Wankel engine, type DKM54 (1957)
Wankel's grave in Heidelberg
The Wankel engine is a type of internal combustion engine using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. The concept was proven by German engineer Felix Wankel, followed by a commercially feasible engine designed by German engineer Hanns-Dieter Paschke. The Wankel engine's rotor, which creates the turning motion, is similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle, with the sides having less curvature. The rotor spins inside a figure-eight-like epitrochoidal housing around a fixed-toothed gearing. The midpoint of the rotor moves in a circle around the output shaft, rotating the shaft via a cam.
Figure 2. The first DKM Wankel engine designed by Felix Wankel, the DKM 54 (Drehkolbenmotor), at the Deutsches Museum in Bonn
Figure 3. A Wankel engine with its rotor and geared output shaft
Figure 5. The first KKM Wankel Engine based on a design by Hanns-Dieter Paschke, the NSU KKM 57P (Kreiskolbenmotor), at Autovision und Forum
Figure 6. First production Wankel engine; installed in an NSU Spider
