@inteldrip · Intel Drip™ | Tech • Engineering • Tools • AI
Saved 2026-05-15 · Posted 2026-03-08 · Status: New
At first glance this engine looks like the cylinder of a revolver.
That’s because its design is completely different from a traditional piston engine.
This is the Duke axial engine. Instead of pistons moving up and down in separate cylinders like a normal engine, the pistons are arranged around a central shaft in a rotating drum.
As the drum spins, each piston moves back and forth along the axis of the engine.
That’s why it’s called an axial engine. The advantages are surprisingly practical.
Because everything is aligned along one shaft, the engine becomes much shorter and more compact than conventional designs.
Fewer moving parts also mean less vibration and potentially better efficiency.
For example, the Duke engine prototype produced around 215 horsepower while weighing roughly half as much as a comparable traditional engine.
That kind of power-to-weight ratio is extremely valuable in applications like motorcycles, aircraft, or performance vehicles.
The revolver-style layout also allows better balance because the pistons fire evenly around the shaft. So what looks like a gun mechanism… is actually an attempt to redesign the internal combustion engine itself.
Sometimes the most unusual engineering ideas come from rethinking the basic geometry.
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Comments (15)
That's the way the ac compressor works in many cars...
When engineers design engines after watching too many westerns 😅
So your saying I can fit 2 In a miata
So they made an a/c compressor with combustion chambers😂
Wouldn’t last long
Engineers have discovered the swashplate
Looks like one of the compressor designs for a AC system.
Dukes got the "big iron on his hip"
It's basically a hydraulic pump.
Nice ac compressor lol
Just like the old airplane engines
Is it vert mount or side mount?
Gonna have some issues on that crankshaft thingy majiggy at higher Roma, probably wouldn’t handle torque well, and would firing order have to be continuously variable because as the rpm increases the timing the cylinders will go round the injectors will change, and lastly maybe I’m being dtupid but where’s the exhaust outlet with no valves? Will the pressures be right?
Would make a great outboard engine
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