- an internal-combustion rotary engine that utilizes a triangular rotor that revolves in a chamber (rather than a conventional piston that moves up and down in a cylinder): it has fewer moving parts and is generally smaller and lighter for a given horsepower.
Origin of Wankel engine
named after F. Wankel
Also called Wan·kel.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
- a type of four-stroke internal-combustion engine without reciprocating parts. It consists of one or more approximately elliptical combustion chambers within which a curved triangular-shaped piston rotates, by the explosion of compressed gas, dividing the combustion chamber into three gastight sections
C20: named after Felix Wankel (1902–88), German engineer who invented it