Inline

Inline is commonly used to mean "in a line", "aligned" or "placed within a line or sequence". Topics that feature "inline" in their names include:

Computing

See also

Inline (slot car)

In the model car hobby, an inline car is a type of slot car or other motorized model car in which the motor shaft runs lengthwise down the chassis, perpendicular to the driven axle (usually the rear). Power is transmitted through a pinion to a crown gear on the axle, or through bevel gears.

The word also refers to the longitudinally-mounted motor or the motor arrangement of such a car.

Of the main motor arrangements for slot cars, the inline is the most common type.

Schematic diagrams of common chassis layouts. The vertical-shaft Pancake motor is seen end-on, with the shaft pointing toward the reader.

The inline motor has been powering cars since the earliest days of the slot car hobby, when individual craftsmen in the mid-1950s were installing small model railroad motors into converted static models or handbuilt bodies to race on the first club tracks. In 1957, Scalextric, one of the first two commercial lines of modern-style slot cars and track, used inline motors to power its pioneering cars.

Straight-three engine

A straight-three engine, also known as an inline-triple, or inline-three (abbreviated I3 or L3), is a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine with three cylinders arranged in a straight line or plane, side by side.

Crankshaft angle

Straight-three engines generally employ a crank angle of 120°. 120° cranks are rotationally balanced; however, since the cylinder fires "one after the other" 1-2-3 (or 1-3-2) the firing pulses have a tendency to induce an end-to end rocking motion. The use of a balance shaft reduces this undesirable effect.

An inline three-cylinder engine with 180° crankshaft can be found in early examples of the Laverda Jota motorcycle made by Italian manufacturer Laverda. In these engines, the outer pistons rise and fall together like a 360° straight-two engine. The inner cylinder is offset 180° from the outer cylinders. In these engines, cylinder number one fires, then 180° later cylinder number two fires, and then 180° later cylinder number three fires. There is no power stroke on the final 180° of rotation. This unusual crank angle came to be due to lack of proper tooling at the factory, which also made vertical twin engines which also utilizes a 180° crankshaft. After 1982, this engine had the regular 120° crank angle.