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of the Ideal Tank Engine
The U.S. says it Should be Aircooled and Burn a Wide Range of Fuels
I T may be a surprise to many of our readers to know that the ideal engine for use in Tanks has yet to be' evolved, at least, that is the opinion of Colonel R. J. lck, of the U.S. Army Ordnance Department.
Some of the highlights in the specificatiori of stadh a unit include air cooling, and that it shouldbe adaptable • to burning 'a wide.range of fuels, even to the extent of being convertible, at will, to run on oil fuel.
Development of Tank engines in this war, said Colonel Ick,. had 'been confined almost entirely to adaptations of units designed for other uses. This, at, least, had enabled the Army to pro-duce more 'Tanks than would have been possible had one type of engine been developed to the exclusion of others. In 1932, he 'said, th€L Ordnance Department, in its search for the ideal Tank engine, installed a Continental radial, air-cooled unit in a combat car. The tests which, followed led ' to the
adoption of this type of engine, because it was the nearest approach to the ideal likely toe commercially available in an einergeficy.
"To-day." said Colonel Ick, " we have in our Tanks aircraft-type petroldriven, air-cooled radial engines ; aircooled radials burning oil ; dual liquidcooled vehicle engines of both petrol and oil types; a multiple-bank arrangement of five commercial liquid-cooled
units and a single liquid-cooled, V-type engine of modified aircraft design.
" Tanks of the World War I period," he said, ".diad a ratio of horse-power per on weight of about four or five. Most European Tanks, to-day, seldom exceed 10, whilst American Tanks slightly exceed this: Contratt this with the power-weight ratio of standard commercial' motors which are never called upon to undergo operations as severe as those encountered with Tanks.'" .
He quoted a 36 .passenger bus, weighing 11 tons loaded, being powered with a 165 b.h.p. engine which gave a figure of 15 h.p. per ton.
This horse-power per ton ratio, Colonel Ick said, was important, not only from the manceuvrability and acceleration points of view, but, in the case of an armoured division on a road with the column extending, perhaps, 90 mites, c-onstant speed must be maintained throughout.