Naming “Cyclone”, Why and When
by John Riend
Published 30 Mar 2025; Revised 31 Mar 2025

Why and when was the name “Cyclone” selected for one of the most famous aircraft piston engines? After years of collecting articles, documents and drawings on the Wright P-1 and P-2 engines I knew that they were each precursor engines of the Cyclone engine series. What I did not know was, exactly how the moniker was acquired and when applied? That is, which of the engines in this series has the distinction of being the First Cyclone and why was it named Cyclone?
Wright P-1
Wright P-2

 

Most journal and magazine articles generally referred to the P-1 and P-2 as just that, P-1 and P-2. The articles published by the military used just the standard designations, i.e. P-1, P-2, R-1750, etc. while the commercial articles used both the name and standard designation somewhat randomly in their articles. Searching for an answer I focused on the period 1922 – 1927, a period during which work was being conducted on the P-1 and P-2. I focused on that period because calling the R-1750 Cyclone was well established by 1928.

The Cyclone 9 Facts article, found on enginehistory.org, states “The name Cyclone was first used in 1924 and applied to the Wright 9-cylinder air cooled engine P-1 (Rl654).” However, there is no citation for the "1924 Year Book" quoted as the source of that date.

On page 185 of February 16th, 1925, Aviation weekly we find the following:
“The Wright “Cyclone” or P-1, as the new engine was called in the original engineering plans, is a fixed radial, with nine cylinders having a 6 in. bore and 6-1/2 in. stroke. The total displacement is 1,650 cu. in., which is the same as that of the Liberty engine.”(1)

I have all the Wright Aeronautical Corporation (WAC) P-1, P-2 and R-1200 drawings (plans) including the assembly drawings and Bills of Material (BOM’s) for each of these engines and none of these documents have the word Cyclone or Simoon on them. While the article is probably correct on the Cyclone naming, I can confirm that there is NO word Cyclone imprinted on any of the original WAC drawings or BOM’s.

I found several articles that mention Cyclone later in May 1925:
  1. WRIGHT “CYCLONE” AN IMPROVEMENT (2)
  2. Wright Radial “Cyclone” (P-1) has completed tests with fine success. (2)
  3. The new 450 hp. Wright “Cyclone” engine recently announced by the Wright Aeronautical Corp. is the latest of a long line of engineering accomplishments by this company since the first successful flight by the Wright Brothers some years ago. (3)

The previous articles were informative but headed in the wrong direction chronologically. I finally hit upon another Aviation weekly article from November 1924 that suggested an answer to both of my questions, Why and When (4).

"As a result of a recent editorial in AVIATION the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, of Paterson, N. J., in a letter to the Air Service and Bureau of Aeronautics, Navy Department, of Sept. 30, has suggested the adoption of the names of storms for their various engines and of American Indian tribes for their planes."

The editorial in question urged that American planes and engines be given names instead of the complicated and awkward designations of combinations of letters and numerals.

The names chosen were:
  1. P-1, 400 hp air cooled engine, Wright - Cyclone.
  2. T3, 600-675 hp water cooled engine, Wright - Tornado.
  3. T3, 550-600 hp marine engine, Wright - Typhoon.
  4. J4, 200 hp air cooled engine, Wright - Whirlwind.
  5. L4, 60 hp air cooled engine, Wright - Gale.
  6. E4, 200 hp water cooled engine, Wright - Tempest.
  7. E4, 200 hp Standard bore marine engine, Wright - Hurricane.
  8. E4, 240 hp Special Gold Cup marine engine, Wright Gold Cup.

The previous article answered the Why, the following one answers the When question.

Naming Airplane Types (5)

"From the favorable response that has been received from the inquiry regarding a more sensible system of naming planes, Aviation hopes that it has started a movement toward a clear aircraft type nomenclature. An Air Service officer who occupies a position of importance in aeronautical engineering writes that he will urge every manufacturer who does business with the government to give their planes some name which fits it. Even as well informed an observer as he, has difficulty in reading reports which refer to machines by letters and numbers jumbled illegibly. Aviation hopes that manufacturers will see the advantage to themselves, the government and the public of this suggestion, and give their type of planes names that will identify them."

So, there it is, the naming of engines and Planes was motivated by an aviation trade magazine article (Aviation week) published on October 6th, 1924, with the objective to make it easier for everyone to identify a particular type of machine with a unique easy to remember Name rather than a nondescript group of numbers and letters. In their September 30th, 1924, letter Wright Aeronautical Corp. outlines their reasoning for assigning their names.

It appears then that September 30th, 1924, is the date the P-1 engine was officially named "Cyclone" and was the First engine of the Cyclone series.

 

There may be errors or differing viewpoints on this article; please let me know so I can make corrections.

Check out my Wright P-1 and P-2 CAD images.

J Riend 29 March 2025

References (all can be found online)
1. Aviation Week Vol 18 Iss 7, pg 185 1925-02-16
2. The Slipstream V5 N10 - V6 N6 pp 17, 20 1924-25
3. Aviation Week V18 N21 pg 576 1925-05-25
4. Aviation Week V17 N1 pg 1227 1924-11-03
5. Aviation Week V17 N14 pg 1081 1924-10-06

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