Or flying can go diesel. More kJ/kg.

Impossible to do a diesel rotary? Is it a compression ratio problem?

-Chris

Perhaps not impossible. Just very difficult. It appears to be a compression ratio problem. Several have tried and failed so far.
So too for diesel piston engines in aircraft. The latest fiasco is Thielert. Diesel engines do not make good aircraft engines. The fuel consumption advantage is reduced as they approch aircraft power levels. Therefor the increased weight and cost of the engine is a drawback that out weighs the modest fuel consumption reduction. Every 50 years or so some one tries it again. Diesel engines are very good at medium to low power levels.
What appears to be possible is stratifed charge rotary engines that can run very lean approaching the fuel econonmy of diesel engines at medium to low power. Again if you want the power you are going to burn the fuel.
http://www.rotaryeng.net/Stratfied-charge-rotary.pdf

BTW I don't want any more messages on: "my piston diesel car is better than your whatever". Just buy your piston diesel car and keep it to yourself or find some other place to rant about it :) I am not going to publish them. This newsletter is about rotary engines and now race car engine technology that can be applied to them.

Paul Lamar

Agreed ! Thielert was a very good example...

For the sake of burning Jet-A, has anyone tried the IDI approach VW did with their pre-TDI diesel's ? Essentially, there was no combustion chamber above the piston. It actually protrudes above the deck level into the had gasket space. The head is flat except for a very small space where the valves & prechamber are. They have an Inconel (maybe other similar metal) prechamber - a cup - where the glow plug and fuel injector are located. It is the main squash area for the cylinder. The flame front starts there and extends into the cylinder as the piston travels past TDC.

I was thinking one of the spark plug bosses could be modified to accept one of these cups, and custom rotors with no chambers would need to be made. The result would be a 100% mechanical engine after glow plug and starter run-up. (The injection pump stock has a 12v "fuel on" solenoid some have replace with a mechanical fuel shut-off.)

The point of this would be cheaper airport fuel anywhere and a 100% mechanical engine, nothing to do with fuel burn or what type of fuel. Our Rotary's long cycles would give the flame more time to burn, possible resulting in less smoke. Of course you would need to turbocharge or turbo-normalize it. Ideas ?

-dave