Bill Freeman wrote:

Don't mean to be negative, but this has been known to researchers
for a VERY long time.  If you look at the old (maybe even current)
American car oil pumps, some of them were a 5 pt flat-tipped "star"
running in a 6 "lobed' housing.  They  use slightly different mechanicals
in that the "rotor" spun on a fixed point (driven) and the "housing" turned
inside an outer housing, but I believe the basic kinematics is the same,
as if the housing was fixed and the 'star' orbited an internal ring gear.
I have seen 2,4,and IIRC 5 lobed drawings of "possible" rotary engines.
Apparently, the Wankel was the only one that ever made it past the "hey this
is a
pretty neat idea" stage.  OTOH, if you have an NC mill just laying
around gathering dust, you could probably build at least a working
prototype of these different "powers" of the class of rotaty engines.
Just shows that it is REALLY difficult to find totally new ideas because
so many folks have looked so diligently at the problem of turning
oil products into thrust.

Bill

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