Argus As 5

Following the Armistice of 1918, Germany continued to build aircraft and engines under the control of the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. For use on very large aircraft, Argus designed and built the As 5 WW-24 water-cooled piston engine.

The As 5 consisted of six banks of cylinders arranged around a common crankshaft with a single output shaft. Each cylinder drove the crankshaft through a master and slave big end, similar to most radial engines. The top and bottom sets of three cylinder banks were set at 45° to each other with a 90° separation between the outermost banks.

Individual cylinders with sheet metal water jackets shared the aluminium alloy heads, four to a bank. Inlet and exhaust valves were actuated by shaft driven overhead camshafts. The aluminium alloy crankcase was split top and bottom.

Although some testing was carried out, the As 5 never flew and was abandoned along with the very large aircraft projects it was intended to power.

A single example survives on display at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków, Poland.

Data from Pearce.[1]

• Kisselmann, Wulf Dieter (2012). ARGUS : Flugmotoren und mehr ... (in German) (1. Aufl. ed.). Empfingen: Schiff et Flugzeug-Verl.-Buchhandlung im Buchzentrum. ISBN 978-3867552202.
• von Gersdorff, Kyrill; Schubert, Helmut; Ebert, Stefan; Faltermair, Richard (2007). Flugmotoren und Strahltriebwerke : Entwicklungsgeschichte der deutschen Luftfahrtantriebe von den Anfängen bis zu den internationalen Gemeinschaftsentwicklungen (in German) (4. erg. und erw. Aufl. ed.). Bonn: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 9783763761289.
• Giger, Hans (1986). Kolben-Flugmotoren : Geschichte und Entwicklung in Wort und Bild (in German) (1. Aufl. ed.). Stuttgart: Motorbuch Verlag. ISBN 978-3613010895.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Argus As 5.

• Polish Aviation Museum - Argus As 5
• Enginehistory.org - Argus As 5