Gnome-Rhône 14N


The Gnome-Rhône 14N was a 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engine designed and manufactured by Gnome-Rhône. A development of the pre-war Gnome-Rhône 14K, the 14N was used on several French and German aircraft of World War II.

Design and development

Facing criticisms over the 14K's reliability, Gnome-Rhône undertook a major upgrade of its 14-cylinder design, using different materials for the pistons and valves, and enlarging cooling surfaces by 39%.
The new 14N was introduced in 1937 and was quickly adopted on several aircraft models. In 1939, minor improvements allowed Gnome-Rhône to increase the compression ratio from 6.1:1 to 6.8:1, which resulted in increased power for wartime production aircraft.
The 14N was further developed into the Gnome-Rhône 14R featuring a 2-stage supercharger, but this type was not widely used until after World War II as production of improved engines was prohibited by the terms of the armistice with Germany.
Postwar the 14R was developed into a 28 cylinder high capacity engine as the Gnome-Rhône 28T-1, essentially two 14R-24 engines back to back driving co-axial contra-rotating propeller shafts.

Variants

Data from:Aircraft engines of the World 1945, Aircraft engines of the World 1946

Specifications (14N-48)