Fairchild-Caminez Engine Moves to the New Hangar

Today, we moved one of the rarest items in our collection to the new hangar; this Fairchild-Caminez cam engine.

Forget what you learned in engineering school, this radial has an even number of cylinders, not an odd number like every other radial engine. A cam drive mechanism converted the motion of the pistons to rotary motion by means of rollers in the pistons operating a double-lobed cam on the main shaft. There is no traditional crank shaft.

The Caminez was the very first type certified aircraft engine in the US, and aside from one in the Smithsonian that is not on display, we believe it to be the only one in existence.