Replies to post #26077 on Cyclone Power Technologies, Inc. (fka CYPW)

[BuddyWhazhizname]

Hey Tom, the simple answer is that 'ingenious inventors' don't need to build and test anything before the final production design. That's what makes them ingeniouses.

Here's the problem in one graphic:


(from the 2011 Shareholder Open House presentation http://www.otcmarkets.com/edgar/GetFilingHtml?FilingID=8283228)

Notice the bottleneck?

They have a Chief Engineer who has nobody report to him. Their "Research" operation is "Brownie" who had some kind of career in boat racing. They have mechanics, who were probably boat repairmen, but no machinists.

The flagship product, the Mark 5 engine, was already far behind promised delivery and was under Project Leader and Engineer Vaughn Usher, who's LinkedIn page says he has 60% completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, has an Associate's degree in Industrial Electronics and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Professional Administration. Who knew that administration is a science program?

He spent 19 years at a company making medical catheters, 3 at a startup making implantable heart bits, 3 at another making tiny insulin pumps, a year at a company doing some kind of general medical device development. He finished with this company in April 2010 and his next job was at Cyclone starting in October 2011 where he was put in charge of the Mark 5 fiasco.

So, what do we have? In 2011 Cyclone was living the high life, able to burn more than $300K in cash per month. The Mark 5 was already more than a year late for delivery and had huge problems. The person Harry picks to fix these problems never finished his engineering degree, has a diploma in electronics (of which there are none on the Mark 5), some kind of education in administration, work experience with small, simple, low volume medical devices but no experience with engines or thermodynamics, and had been unemployed for a year and a half.

And that was the "engineer" put on the biggest, most critical problems.

Who knows what qualifications the others on that chart had.

Harry never set foot in a college himself and has made up all his own scientific theories such as aerodynamic drag does not increase with the third power of speed and that bearings are tiny generators.

Even from a distance we've seen it proven that it is physically impossible for Harry's patented Mark 5 valvetrain to survive for more than a moment, that the "spider bearing" must pound the connecting rods to pieces or that it is impossible for the condenser to reject enough heat to work. The last Mark 5 went to a rotary valve and external condenser. Ohio State University threw away the spider bearing on the WHE and reported much greater engine life.

Even after Ohio State proves the spider bearing can't be made to work, Harry's response was to stop work with Ohio State and keep designing engines with spider bearings.

It reminds one of the saying, ignorance can be cured, but stupid is forever.

Another example is all those shiny mock-ups of engines. He went to an SAE engine show in 2006 and again in 2008 with all those toys. There's a video from one show of Harry spouting complete nonsense such as the lawnmower is completely quiet, the engine is so efficient you can put your hand on it while it's running but you can run a second engine off the exhaust of the first, and so on.

How many times do you suppose he was asked if they have a running engine? Every engine manufacturer of any importance would have had people at those shows and not the slightest bit of interest came out of it.

So does Harry buckle down and make a real, running engine? Nope. Just sells contracts to the unsuspecting. If he had the first clue about the technology I'd say he signed contracts knowing he would never fulfill them, but there's not much evidence to support that he has that clue.

Unfortunately, nobody ever held him to account and made him prove his claims with data. He got away with telling investors pure fiction. Once he got the money he was able to show the world what a Big Shot he is, and that needed all the props, like an extensive executive team, public relations firm, titles for everybody, etc. His ego would never let him hire anyone smarter than he is. (Remember when the CEO James Landon sent a letter to shareholders saying he was hiring contractors to fix the problems with the engines? That was a couple months before he left Cyclone.) And with nobody smarter than Harry there is zero chance a working engine will ever result.

It's like if the Pointy Haired Boss in Dilbert was utterly incompetent in technology and business, but was a skilled con-man.

[ChuckFinley305]

I think you do not go far enough in your assessment. From what I understand, Harry was convinced that his invention would work. Not because he had had so much success before but because that is how things worked (right?). He put the company together not to make a winged prototype but to make a 777 or a spaceship (to use your wright brothers reference). Although the science was not there his gut told him that it must work. So with all the millions spent and man hours worked, they never got a chance to deviate from the original design. Had they followed the science the engine would be vastly different. Harry considered himself a genius, God's gift to boating and (obviously) God's gift to engine design. Because that is what geniuses do right? I will have to remember to ask Yo-Yo Ma about Universal Dark Matter. Harry was/is so convinced that he did not care that he patented a set of full, yet ridiculous assembly drawings. But you are right, we got duped by a con man into investing; into helping to sell the useless brick of a machine. We were convinced because of his audacity.
On a side note though, I am now not convinced that any amount of money or tweaking could make that concept work. I have a thought: I think that the engine really just runs off of those massive batteries. It runs until it breaks or until the battery power runs out. I do not think that it makes any real power at all. Especially not enough to keep the batteries charged for very long. Either that, or it produces just enough to keep the batteries charged. But at least it is noisy, ugly, dangerous, dirty and unreliable. A steal at any price.

-Chuck