Charlie Kuss wrote:

He also mentioned a Lexus engine had passed certification. No telling
what parts were changed in that engine compared to the car version.

snipped

Listers,
 Toyota spent 6 years (on a 3 year plan) to get this engine certified.

There was

very little of the original engine left by the time it reached it's final

form.

Toyota has intentions of producing their own aircraft. After spending 6

years and

untold millions of dollars on the Lexus V-8, they have decided to use

Lycoming

engines in their proposed new aircraft. That speaks volumes!!
Charlie Kuss
RV-8 wings
Boca Raton, Fl.

Charlie is *absolutely* right on here.  This was a VERY big-bucks project
and used engineers that have access to the absolutely very best and latest 

 > technology from

top to bottom for both design and manufacturing.  They voted to use a Lyc.
Think about that *again*, please.  Remember that the next time someone tells you
to put a Chevy in your airplane.  Toyota couldn't make their very modern
and sophisticated V8 work effectively.

I will once again climb onto my well worn soap box and say that the std aircraft
engines are very near the optimum for a piston engine for the application.  The
'conventional wisdom' that they are antique junk is wrong.  They have old fashioned
accessories like starter, alt and (perhaps) mags.  They have mfg quality control
and assembly quality control problems.  They are NOT perfect.  But the designs
are (as a class, some are much better than others) very good -- for a piston.

That said, I support the concept of the rotary because it is much less
mechanically complex and is extremly well ballanced.  

IMHO it is a shame that we can't have
a purpose-built air-cooled aircraft rotary.  This is the sweet spot, I
believe.  Water cooling is OK, but inferior for aircraft applications.  
Sadly, we have no choice as
the only readily available rotary is water cooled.  We'll make do as best we
can.  Air-cooled submarines.   ;-)

Bill

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