Rotary combustion engine with improved firing system

Claim 1

A rotary internal combustion engine having a housing comprising a peripheral wall having a basically epitrochoidal inner surface and a pair of end walls defining an engine cavity and having intake and exhaust ports, a shaft transpiercing the end walls and having an eccentric portion disposed within the engine cavity, a rotor of generally polygonal profile rotatably mounted on the eccentric and having a plurality of apex portions sweeping the inner peripheral surface in sealing relation therewith, the rotor having a plurality of working faces between aPex portions, the working faces defining with the housing a plurality of working chambers of variable volume, the rotation of the rotor taking in fresh air at the intake port and compressing it in a zone remote therefrom, wherein the improvement comprises: a. the peripheral wall having therein at least one pair of intercommunicating recesses, the recesses having a common aperture communicating with the engine cavity in the compression zone; b. a spark plug disposed in one recess of an intercommunicating pair and a fuel injector disposed in the other recess of the pair, the injector having a nozzle oriented to spray fuel into the compression zone through the aperture communicating with the engine cavity, and the spark plug having an electrode in close proximity to the fuel nozzle and forming a spark gap therewith; and c. an ignition system having one pole connected to the spark plug electrode and the other pole connected to the engine housing so that the electrode and the fuel nozzle are at opposite polarities, the ignition system firing a spark across the spark gap during the period of fuel injection.