Rolls-Royce also had their fingers in the pie, and converted a Condor petrol (gasoline) engine to diesel operation in the early 1930's, and this engine had passed it's 50 hour type test towards the end of 1932, with flight trials later in the year in a Hawker Horsley aircraft. The engine had 12 cylinders of 5½" X 7½" giving a swept volume of 34729 cc or 2138 cu ins. The engine produced 480 hp at 1900 rpm, with a maximum rated speed of 2000 rpm. Two Bosch pumps and also their injectors provided the fuel system, but this was to vanish as WW2 broke out, leaving many UK engine companies with supply problems.
The Condor diesel (it was not allocated a name by Rolls-Royce) had the following dimensions: 74¼" length, 30½" width
and 45½ height. Overall weight with accessories etc was 1504 lbs.
Hispano-Suiza and Clerget got together to produce engines, and it is thought likely that E.Clerget did not produce many of
his own designs, the radial diesels were known later as the Clerget-Hispano engine: as unwieldy a title as you could
think of. Eventually a 14-cylinder radial diesel was produced, as per the 9 cylinder, but with bores opened up to 140mm from
130mm and the same stroke of 170mm. This revised radial diesel developed 500 hp at 1900 rpm, with a dry weight of 1122 lbs. A
maximum rating of 640 hp at 2200 was available from the same engine.
Clerget Radial Diesel Aero Engine
Clerget Radial Diesel Aero Engine
Alfa-Romeo V6 Diesel Aero Engine