They started working on that Army contract in 2007 and even got their congressman involved at one point to keep it.
In 2007 the Army gave out a bunch of R&D contracts to develop small engines that ran on JP8 (the Army's standard fuel) instead of gasoline. There was lots of success converting regular engines. In fact, there are at least two companies now converting off the shelf Honda generators to run on JP8.
In comparison, the Cyclone system took $1.4m and 7 years and still needs untold millions and years to make their system practical. As the release said: "The Company is now in discussions for follow-on funding to advance the technology through manufacturability and life testing."
Or the Army could buy Honda generators with factory warranties under competitive bids now.
But what I find most surprising is that there has been no information provided about the Army prototype: no photos, no specs, no video of it running, nothing. Cyclone isn't exactly publicity-shy. They are recycling old news for their Facebook BFFs. Weird, huh?
