LiquidPiston Inc. has developed a new engine that can run on multiple fuels, including diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline. This platform uses an optimized thermodynamic cycle and a new rotary engine architecture and could increases flight endurance over conventional UAV engines by greater than 50%.
A new configuration of a rotary engine – the Szorenyi rotary engine – has been developed by the Melbourne-based Rotary Engine Development Agency (REDA). While the stator, or stationary part of the Szorenyi engine is similar to that of a Wankel engine, the geometric shape of the engine rotor is a rhombus, which deforms as it rotates inside the contour of the stator.
Just down the road from SAE International’s headquarters in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, Mark Sokalski has been quietly working out how to maximize piston-driven engine efficiency – with an internal combustion engine mechanism that doesn’t follow the norm.