Continental Motors is a corporation in Mobile,
Alabama, USA, that produces aircraft
engines. They are currently part of the Teledyne conglomerate, and properly known as
Teledyne Continental.
The company produced engines for various independent manufacturers of automobiles,
tractors, and stationary equipment (i.e. pumps, generators, machinery drives) from the 1920s through the 1960s.
The company had two major production plants located in Michigan, in the cities of
Muskegon and Detroit. The Detroit plant
closed in 1965.
Continental Motors also produced Continental branded automobiles in 1932/1933
based upon the 1931 De Vaux, a product of the De Vaux Motors
Corporations of Oakland, California, which had been using body dies left over from the former Durant produced by Durant Motors until 1930.
Restored Continental AV-1790-5B tank engine at the American Armored Foundation Tank Museum in Danville, Virginia.
Although Continental is most well known for its light aviation engines, they were also contracted to produce the air-cooled
V12 "AV-1790-5B" gasoline engine for the U.S. Army's M47
Patton tank and the diesel AVDS-1790-2A and its derivatives for the
M48 Patton and M60 series main battle tanks.
Company history
1905 Continental Motors is born with the introduction of a four-cylinder,
four stroke cycle L-head engine operated by a single camshaft.
1906 Type "O" 45 hp (34 kW) engine is developed to power aircraft.
1929 A-70 radial, seven-cylinder engine is
introduced.
1930 A-40 four-cylinder engine is introduced.
1938 A-50 is added to the lineup to power the Piper
Cub and Taylorcraft.
1939 Continental builds aircraft engines for use in British and American tanks.
1945 Six-cylinder E-185 developed for Beechcraft
Bonanza.
1950s A-65 developed into the more powerful C-90 and eventually to the 100 hp
(75 kW) O-200. The latter powered a very important airplane design milestone: the
Cessna 150.
1960s Turbocharging and fuel injection are
brought to general aviation. A turbocharger allows the engine to power the aircraft to a higher altitude where the air is
thinner. This can occasionally allow the aircraft to fly above a storm, which is a major safety benefit. Fuel injection allows
the aircraft to perform aggressive maneuvers without suffering the fuel starvation that a carburetor may incur. The IO-520's
applications expand to dominate the market.
1972 6-285 Tiara 285hp@4000 (4.875x4.625 = 406cuin) and 6-320 320hp high output engines dropped after 1978.
1984 TSIO-520-BE for the Piper Malibu. It
sets new efficiency standards for light aircraft piston engines.
1986 Powered by a liquid cooled version of the IO-240, the Voyager is the first piston-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the world without refueling.
1997 NASA selects Continental to develop and produce
GAP, a new 200-hp piston engine that operates on Jet-A fuel. This is in response to 100-octane aviation gasoline becoming less
available in the face of decreased demand, as a result of smaller turboprop engines becoming
more prevalent due to their long service life.
1999 Continental develops and tests its first FADEC-equipped engine.
Source; excerpt and wikified from official site.
Continental Motors continues to build engines for aircraft and is currently (2005) a division of Teledyne Technologies Company.
Automobiles Using Continental Engines
External links
- Teledyne Continental Motors TCM official
site
- "Flying With Forty Horses" by Chet Peek - Book
covering the story of the Continental A-40, the engine which revived the struggling aviation industry during the Great
Depression
See also
References
Foss, Christopher F. [1974]. Jane's Pocket Book of Modern Tanks and Armored
Fighting Vehicles. Collier Books, 45-49. 73-15286.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
