In response to the growing interest in aviation in France after the Wright brothers' visit in 1908, Anzani produced the first of a series of three-cylinder fan flight engines.

An engine of this sort famously powered Louis Blériot's Type XI monoplane across La Manche (the English Channel) on 25 July 1909.

The exhaust valve was moved to the cylinder head and operated by rockers via push rods, and a mixing chamber was arranged in the crankcase.

Anzani was aware of the weight cost of the counterweight in the fan configuration and by December 1909 he had a symmetric 120° three-cylinder radial engine running.

Radials are smoother running than the less symmetric fan engines as well as lower weight but with the low power available from their three cylinders they had limited applications.

In the 21st century a restored Bleriot XI bearing the French Blériot factory serial number 56 — said to be the oldest flyable aircraft in the Western Hemisphere, bearing the American registration N60094 — is still flown in the United States on summer and early autumn weekends with one of these 120° cylinder angle "Y-type" radial engines.

Another Blériot XI, with British registration G-AANG and said to be only three weeks older than the Old Rhinebeck example, is allowed to fly similar short 'hops' at the Shuttleworth Collection.

[10] One Anzani Y-type radial engine, along with 1925 ANBO-I aircraft it powered, since 1930s is displayed at Lithuanian Aviation Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.