To confuse myself I and others even more, I present you the ultimate in piston engine technology, actually the most powerful piston engine to have ever powered an aircraft:
Dobrynin VD-4K
I kinda feel sorry for air when it faces this 24-cylinder, six-bank, four-row, 59,5 liter monster, as it has to go through a most confusing route:
Air from intake goes to turbo, turbo blows air into a
two-stage, variable geometry supercharger, air goes to cylinders (I assume it had direct injection). Exhaust gases go trough three "blowdown" turbines between the cylinder banks (one for each 8 cylinders = 2 banks), then continues towards the back to go turn the aforementioned turbosupercharger. Probably, after this point, the exhaust gases don't have anything more to give...
The blowdown turbines are mechanically connected to crankshaft, in this case adding some 700 free horsepower. Of course, there is also the two-stage supercharger, and all this most likely needs whole lotta intercooling and other extra piping. I could draw a picture of that, but it's late, and I think that would take some time.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrynin_VD-4K
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobrynin_VD-4K
I have a few wonderful books, "TDevelopment of Piston Aero Engines" and "World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines", both by Bill Gunston. These explain the engine and one of them might even have a picture of it. I don't have access to my library at the moment, so the third source is my memory.
Off topic it is, could you pls forgive me...
