Hi Tom,
All valid points. I'll answer them one by one, but my design is so different from Cyclone's that it's apples & oranges.
First & foremost the engine is fully encased not merely shrouded, so for all intents & purposes it looks more like the "Jupiter II" from "Lost In Space" than the beautiful machines of Pratt & Whitney featured in all those WWII aircraft.
No fragile & clunky spider bearing is used or needed, rather than have *ONE* master rod handle all of the side-to-side loads, I have utilized *two* masters & a four-bar-linkage, and/or a synchronizing gear to accomplish that requirement. All piston motions are identical, as are all piston speeds, and nothing bangs into anything else at the limit of travel. With six cylinders on power at all points in the rotation, the result is smooth torque & speed.
The block is exceedingly simple to make. The 12 sides are 30 degrees apart, and the 12 cylinders slide into the holes. They don't even have to be oriented. Plus there are no fasteners holding the cylinders in place. The shell of the engine handles that. It's like poka-yoke on steroids. Every part of the engine has rotational or reflective symmetry.
My original design was a three cylinder with variable valve rate, perfect for speed control under varying boiler outputs. Since I was trying to spin a varying load at constant speed, I reworked the design for 'programmable torque' while maintaining the ability to maintain speed with only a phase error in the shaft position.
Valve 'lubrication' is accomplished by the film of vapor suspended between the moving & stationary faces (gas bearing). And since the whole valve assembly is a plenum, it's essentially immune to binding via imbalance. While there is some force, it's comparable to poppet valve forces, but it's spread out over 100 times the area of a poppet valve seat. Did I mention that the valve speed is proportional to the number of cylinders? So for an 1800 RPM output the valve turns at a leisurely 150 RPM, and for a 1200RPM (three phase 60 HZ generator load) the valves spin at a lazy 100 RPM.
And finally, while the mass flow in the cylinder is counter-flow, the intake & exhaust are handled by separate heads with a long and narrow thermal pathway connecting them.
These are all excellent points. So let me say thank you for raising them and allowing me to address them in public. There are many more features in my engine that address a number of other challenges inherent in internal combustion engines.
My business partner had experience with motorcycle racing, and high performance automobiles. His role was to be the public face of the company, and schmooze the investors. Mine was (and is) the dark sub-basement of engineering. Since his death, I've realized that it's way past time for me to step out into the light if this thing is ever going to launch.
P.S. Sorry for the long delay, I thought the BBS would notify me upon a response to my OP.
