A straight-12 engine (also known as a inline-12 engine) is a twelve-cylinder piston engine with all twelve cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase.
Land use
Due to the very long length of a straight-twelve engine, they are rarely used in automobiles. The first known example is a 7.2 litres (440 cu in) engine in the 1920 French Corona car;1 however it is not known if any cars were sold. Packard also experimented with an automobile powered by an inline 12 in 1929.2
The straight-12 has also been used for large military trucks.
Marine use
Some Russian firms built straight-12s for use in ships in the 1960s and 1970s.
MAN Diesel & Turbo 12K98ME and 12S90ME-C and the Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C are examples of contemporary marine engines in L-12-cylinder configuration. These are popular for propulsion in container ships.34
References
References
- Burgess Wise, David (1979). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles. New Burlington Books. p. 131. ISBN 0-906286-16-6.
- "The Long-Lost Experimental Packard Straight Twelve". The Old Motor. 4 December 2014.
- Bourdon, Stuart (9 March 2015). "World's Largest Diesel: MAN's Record-Breaking 12S90ME-C". Archived from the original on 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
- "Marine Engine IMO Tier ll and Tier lll Programme 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2017-05-31.