Curiosity's got me asking a question that probably won't make much sense.
Why is the displacement for small aircraft engines (the only one I really know of is the Lycoming IO-360) so high? Its displacement is 5.9 liters, but it produces (usually) only 180 horsepower. It seems like in cars most engines that produce that much horsepower have a displacement of around 1.8-2 liters. Most cars with that displacement seem to be V-8's or even V-12's that produce almost three times the amount of horsepower of the Lycoming. My question really is... why so much displacement? Would it have something to do with "low end power" or torque?
That might seem like a bunch of rambling, I don't know a huge amount about engines.
Why is the displacement for small aircraft engines (the only one I really know of is the Lycoming IO-360) so high? Its displacement is 5.9 liters, but it produces (usually) only 180 horsepower. It seems like in cars most engines that produce that much horsepower have a displacement of around 1.8-2 liters. Most cars with that displacement seem to be V-8's or even V-12's that produce almost three times the amount of horsepower of the Lycoming. My question really is... why so much displacement? Would it have something to do with "low end power" or torque?
That might seem like a bunch of rambling, I don't know a huge amount about engines.
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