Tomo et al,
I am curious about the idea of the BMW 801 being particularly compact. It is the most compact of the 4 mid sized 14 cylinder WW2 radials, but not by a lot. I see the area of the 801 being about 7% less than the Kasei 21 and 13% less than the R2600 and Hercules. I calculated the frontal area from diameter on the radials. Other data is from Wikipedia and Smithsonian. All of the non german radials have longer strokes.
Diameter or width in inches. Frontal area in parenthesis.
42 liter BMW 801 51″ (14.2 sq ft) 156mm x 156mm
43 liter Wright R2600 55″ (16.5 sq ft) x 156mm x 160mm
39 liters Bristol Hercules 55″(16.5 sq ft) 146mm x 165mm
42 liter Mitsubishi Kasei 21 Ha32 53″(15.2 sq ft) 150mm x 170mm
28 liter Allison V1710 29″ (6.1 sq ft)
37 liter Rolls Royce Griffon 30″ (7.9 sq ft)
27 liter Rolls Royce Merlin 31″(7.5 sq ft)
45 liter DB603 33″
35 liter Jumo 213 at 31″
I have idle curiosity in radial design. Is there a formula on bore, stroke, cylinder to diameter ratios?