Rotary engine also referred as the Wankel engine or the Wankel rotary engine, named after itâ„¢s inventor Dr. Felix Wankel, is a type of internal combustion engine. It has the same characteristics of the regular piston engine but totally differs in their working mechanism. In the regular piston engine, the cylinder performs the four distinct tasks of intake, compression, combustion and exhaustion, rotationally.

Where as in a rotary engine, the same cylinder does the same four functions at the same time. The feeling is like, the cylinder, totally committed to do only that particular task. The only difference it makes from the conventional piston engine, is that the cylinder has to work frequently shifting from one job to another.