> Wankle introduced his Rotary engine: a serious change in motor
> design, but nobody has ever trusted it even though it has been around for
> years.
I wouldn't say "nobody," because Mazda continues to use the Wankel
today in their RX-7. The reasons why rotaries have never achieved mass
acceptance are numerous, but I don't know if I'd interpret that as a
lack of trust. From what I've heard, they have a lot more to do with
large licensing fees paid to the patent holders, probably the Wankel estate;
not to mention the difficulty of emissions control in an engine with
a power cycle much like a 2-stroke.
I remember the days when you had a whole bunch of Mazda rotary small
cars and trucks, not to mention rotary Polaris snowmobiles, and even
a few rotary lawnmowers (never saw one of those, but did see pictures).
Ron
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:10:00 EDT