Cyclone Power Technologies, Inc. (fka CYPW)

[BuddyWhazhizname]

It's hard to say if he was "consulted" on anything technical. Someone on the Yahoo board posted last week:

Does it sound like a scam when you sign up a bunch of respected engineers with many years background in light steam technology, label them your "Board of Advisors" and then never ask them for advice and discount everything they suggest?

I've been reading old posts on the steam car club's forum (I still think a modern steam engine has huge potential.) Before his user name was HLS it was "Harry Schoell", and back in 2002 he was asking for advice on his ideas. He got a lot of good response from experienced people, including Jim Crank, but he always rejected everything claiming he knew better.

Jim Crank was the former Lockheed engineer and Jerry Peoples was the former NASA engineer that Cyclone brags about having as advisers. I haven't read one case where any advice was taken. Maybe Cyclone was working with them off-line, but what the Yahoo poster said matches what the steam forum discussion was.

Mr. Crank has also recently posted on the steam site:

Jim Crank
Re: US Land Steam Record!!
May 06, 2014 02:16PM
Chuk,

[...]

Seems you don't need to concern yourself about the other Bonneville car, their engine doesn't work according to good sources.

My take reading all the discussion from back when Cyclone started is that Jim Crank is very passionate about steam power and he saw the Cyclone project as the best chance for steam to be resurrected. He often urged people to support the cause. This comes out in that White Paper he wrote for Cyclone. He's in California, and nothing he wrote publicly indicated he had ever been to Cyclone's facility or seen a Cyclone engine in person. It looks like everything he knew about the Cyclone engine is from what Harry Schoell told him.

The next line in that Yahoo post was:

Does it sounds like a scam when your "Chief Technology Officer" is adamant that automotive drag is a function of the square and not the cube of speed, as is well known?

Reading through Harry Schoell's 'theories' is something. The bottom of the Mark 5 engine has a fan on the crankshaft to blow steam at the condenser surface. He says the fan creates "compressive condensing". That's a thermodynamic process hitherto unknown to the world of engineering and that only seems to exist inside Cyclone engines. His theories on supercritical steam are just as creative.

I personally think he dreamed up this engine design and fell in love with it as an example of his personal genius (The SEC made him remove his description of himself as a "Technology Visionary", item 24 in 2011.) From then on it has all been a process of rationalizing his decisions. The story has been from 2002 onwards that it works great, but just needs a little more tweaking and production will start in the next quarter. Ask experts for their opinions, ignore their answers then claim they support your design.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...