The one-stroke engine revisited
What kind of engine has a piston that makes only one stroke, propelled by fuel and oxidizer that are combined in solid form? The answer is, a gun. Yet, strange to say, the peak piston acceleration in a Formula One engine of the V10 era was roughly twice that of a 16in shell weighing 2000lb, being fired from a battleship’s naval rifle.
A gun’s ‘piston’ becomes a projectile as it leaves the muzzle of its ‘cylinder’, describing a
