The Collaborative International Dictionary
Radial engine \Radial engine\ (Mach.) An engine, usually an internal-combustion engine of a certain type (the
radial type) having several cylinders arranged radially like the spokes of a complete wheel. The
semiradial engine has radiating cylinders on only one side of the crank shaft.
Wiktionary
n. Any of several internal combustion engines that have the cylinders arranged radially around a central crankshaft
WordNet
n. an internal-combustion engine having cylinders arranged radially around a central crankcase [syn: rotary engine]
Wikipedia
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is called a "star engine" ( German Sternmotor, French moteur en étoile, Japanese ) in some languages. The radial configuration was very commonly used for aircraft engines before gas turbine engines became predominant.
Usage examples of "radial engine".
Pitt saw the helicopter turn head-on, saw the flash from the guns in the pods, heard the shells punching into the big radial engine.
The fierce roar of the 1,200-horsepower Wright radial engine filled him.
A very big biplane with an enclosed cabin, a radial engine and a dull-green paint job.
The unfavorable wind from the sandstorm slowed her airspeed to 90 miles an hour, 30 off the 120-mph cruising speed of her old, reliable Fairchild FC-2W, a high-wing monoplane with an enclosed cockpit and cabin, powered by a Pratt & Whitney Wasp 410-horsepower radial engine.
The starter whined, and the machine shook as the 700-horsepower Curtiss-Wright radial engine labored.
It had a nine-hundred-horsepower Twin Wasp radial engine and was primarily designed to launch torpedoes at enemy shipping.
The air temperature at ten thousand feet above the Amazon in spring would be somewhere about 45 degrees and the heat of the radial engine would raise that considerably.
It was a big high-wing monoplane, thick-shouldered, and the single air-cooled radial engine looked enormous.
And now that big radial engine was coughing into life, shaking the furniture.