Patent ID: 7578278

Claim:
An internal combustion engine comprising: an engine case containing a rotor; a plurality of identical lobes carried within the rotor, each lobe extendible from a slot in a cylindrical surface of the rotor to maintain a peripheral edge in continuous sealing contact with a contoured wall of the case, the contour having a first portion diverging from a first tangency point between the rotor and case wall and a second portion contracting from a first maximum divergence to a second tangency point between the rotor and case, and having a third portion diverging from the second tangency point to a second maximum divergence and a fourth portion converging to the first tangency point, the first and second portion defining a first volume and the third and fourth portion defining a second volume asymmetric to said first volume swept between adjacent sealed lobes; a combustion air inlet within the first portion of the contour; an exhaust outlet within the fourth portion of the contour; means for extending and retracting the lobes to maintain contact with the cylindrical surface of the rotor; and, means carried between each two adjacent lobes to initiate combustion of the combustion air with a leading lobe and a trailing lobe oppositely adjacent the second tangency point.