A rotary vane combustion engine is provided that uses a hot wall combustion insert to provide the heat for combusting a fuel-air charge. The rotary vane combustion engine includes a rotor having a plurality of vanes, a stator enclosing the rotor to form a plurality of vane cells between the plurality of vanes, one or more intake ports for providing intake gas to the vane cells, a fuel source for mixing fuel with the intake gas to form a fuel-air charge having a fuel-to-air equivalence ratio, a hot wall combustion insert with an exposed surface provided on the stator for igniting the fuel-air charge during a combustion cycle and producing an exhaust gas, and one or more exhaust ports for removing the exhaust gas from one of the vane cells. The hot wall combustion insert provides the heat to combust the fuel-air charge, and operates on the gas over a wide area, rather than only at a point or a given line of contact. Once the hot wall combustion insert surface reaches the ignition temperature, it can use the heat from the combustion in a given vane cell to maintain its temperature for combustion in the next vane cell.