Hi MTM:
I think Cyclone started off meaning to build a viable light steam power plant. The problem was that their focus was to build precisely the powerplant that was patented, even though the designer had no formal training, apprenticeship or experience in the appropriate fields ---- and hadn’t definitively proven that some of the enabling technologies were feasible. For a layman to take out patents in a long established discipline without testing out the concepts takes quite a bit of ego, soliciting investors with the argument that your ideas are so great that others will be willing to pay for them takes even more ego. And that’s what has apparently driven the whole exercise, ego. The project was meant to realize the inventor’s vision rather than doing whatever was necessary to develop a practical product. It was never an R &D outfit. Take the Board of Advisors, for instance. It had very qualified members, but they were never given an official function (as revealed in the SEC report) and were never seriously consulted despite their superior credentials and expertise (try finding their names on Cyclone patents).
I suspect things degenerated over time. Claims were made regarding performance and economy but never third party verified. It is just my opinion, but it looked as though they had decided how the engine was going to perform when they finally had it ready and allowed this estimate to gradually color their presentations until the estimates were presumed to be fact. Again, just my opinion, but I suspect they were working hard to get the engine to meet expectations but were falling further behind the image being presented to the public.
To me, the whole venture was based on a series of questionable assumptions. It was assumed that there was a lucrative market for an “all fuel” engine. I don’t see why, I don’t know of any fuels that are currently more plentiful or scarce than others. It was assumed that companies would pay royalties for the design. That was questionable given that all the critical concepts in the Cyclone engine are all in the public domain, the patents narrowly cover just the specific Cyclone implementation of these concepts. Most companies building engines have far more resources and more experienced talent than Cyclone, there is no incentive for them to pay royalties when they can undoubtedly develop a better product alone. It was assumed the engine would exhibit superior economy and performance, and we are still awaiting independent 3rd party confirmation on that one. In my view they doubled down when things got off track rather than going to a clean sheet of paper and developing a better business plan (and product) and promoted an ever increasing array of products on the belief their steam engineering talents would make all profitable.
To summarize, the product was the brainchild of a layman who was so convinced of his work that he took out patents and solicited funding before any of the hardware was tested. It was assumed the designs and business model were pure genius and only needed a bit of refinement, alternatives were generally rejected out of hand. Product expectations were slowly assumed to fit reality and were presented to the public as factual. An array of products were promoted on the assumption that Cyclone was adequately expert in steam engineering to deliver profits in all these ventures.
Anyhow, that’s how I see it, everyone has their own opinion.
