The history of Cam engines The concept of moving pistons with a cam rather than a crank has a long history. One of the first aircraft engines to be certified for flight by the United States Navy was a radial cam engine, the Caminez engine developed by the Fairchild-Caminez Engine Corporation, formed by Sherman Fairchild.
However, at that time, there was a very large problem that held back the development of smooth-running radial cam engines. The milling machines in 1927 were manual and were simply unable to machine close-tolerance cams in an optimal profile. Further development would have to wait until the invention of the computer chip by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959, a company also formed by Sherman Fairchild.
This technology would eventually lead to the perfection of high-precision Computer Numerical Control or CNC machining in the mid to late 1980s. This was a technology that would finally make it possible to machine highly precise cam profiles for practical radial cam engines. However, Sherman Fairchild passed away in 1971 after founding over 70 different companies throughout his career, and is considered the founder of Silicon Valley.
This forward-thinking, innovative entrepreneur dedicated three years to the Radial Cam concept from 1925 to 1928 and proved to the US Navy that the concept was viable enough to be certified for aircraft, even with its poorly designed, manually machined cams. It was just not able to be mass-produced, and suffered from severe vibrations. Today, that is no longer a problem. Kamtech and Earthstar aircraft demonstrated that.