Wankel rotary engine powered thousands of aircraft. One of several problems: It spewed castor oil on its pilots.

Most car enthusiasts associate the term “rotary engine” with Felix Wankel’s invention, developed in the 1950s and most commonly associated with Mazda. However, more than half a century before the ...

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. The first successful rotary engine is ...

Long before Felix Wankel became synonymous with rotary engines, an inventive Hungarian-American engineer named Stephen M. Balzer secured one of the earliest patents for a rotary-powered automobile on ...

The R130 was a very rare model, produced for only three years and with fewer than 1,000 units built. It was also notable as the only front-wheel-drive Mazda model powered by a rotary engine until the ...