Colour my cynical. There's been alternative engine development for almost as long as there's been the combustion engine, and nothing yet has made an impact.<p>Ralph Sarich invented the orbital engine [0] almost 40 years ago, formed a company and spent millions on the idea but it went nowhere. Interestingly, they knew when to change direction and ended up making a number of breakthroughs in the field of two stroke engines. The company is still in business today [1]<p>[0] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_engine" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_engine</a><p>[1] <a href="http://www.orbeng.com.au/" rel="nofollow">http://www.orbeng.com.au/</a>
<i>Michigan State's team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year.</i><p>It should be noted than 25kW is 33HP. Though it's possible to make a useful car with that little power, 33HP is generally considered an appropriate power level for a beginner's motorcycle, not a car. Even if it's much lighter than a piston engine and has such a wide powerband that it doesn't need a gearbox, it's likely they'd need a lot more power for consumer acceptance even in small cars.<p>Edit: I googled this and found that the intent is to use this engine to run generators to charge batteries in hybrid cars, not for direct propulsion. In that case, the cars probably won't be much, if any lighter than standard cars since all the weight savings will be replaced with batteries. Power output could, of course be lower than a standard car engine and still provide good performance since the electric motors could have peak outputs far exceeding the sustained output of the generator.
"Michigan State's team of engineers hope to have a car-sized 25-kilowatt version of the prototype ready by the end of the year."<p>I'll pay attention once this happens. As they say, there's many a slip between the cup and the lip. Lab projections invariably end up being over-optimistic.
There is nothing in this story and video to back up any of the claims they are making. He just waves around a rotating disc.<p>He could be talking about cold fusion in just the same way ;)<p>[edit]
looking at the duplicate link, they refer to their own article from 2006. Cold fusion would either have been laughed away or taken over the world. Same thing here I would assume.
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<a href="http://www.aptera.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.aptera.com</a> Prototype by the end of the year? I swear Aptera has been saying that for the last few... (Okay, they have prototypes but they're not on the market yet.)
This sounds a lot like a rotary engine with multiple combustion chambers. The idea of sliding seals should be enough to have any rotary afficionado denounce this new engine.
there is a lot of ingenious engines. The question is which one can be made into practically usable product.<p>There is even productized version of rotary-vane engine coming supposedly next year in a Russian car:<p><a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/1709400/russian-billionaire-unleashes-countrys-first-hybrid-vehicle" rel="nofollow">http://www.fastcompany.com/1709400/russian-billionaire-unlea...</a><p>I'd be though very surprised if they pull it off as beside Mazda rotary i don't know other mass-produced cars with non-traditional engines.