Good day Mr. Lamar,

 As you may be aware, the new Norton Motorcycles  Ltd. (UK)
 is back in the rotary business, taking off where the
 former  Norton company left off in the mid-90's after
 being effectively banned from  UK motorcycle road racing
 for being too successful in winning against  reciprocating
 competition. Sorta got "Mazda'd" I guess. The  current
 NRV-588 twin-rotor liquid-cooled motor making 170 BHP
 at 11,500  RPM according to website.

 That being said, I'm curious as to whether  you've kept
 up with events at the past and present Norton  organizations
 and rotary development there. The past Norton  organization
 manufactured until the mid-nineties very desirable  street
 versions on their rotary which were unfortunately never
 sent to  our shores, although I know of a couple acquired
 illegally thru Canada.  Until the time the new batch of
 rotaries are available here, I'm stuck with  my two '72 Norton
 Commandos with their 1947 design motor. Still cool  though!

 I enjoy your site, especially the Jim Hall/Chapparal  conversation.


 Sincerely,

 Al Koivisto

 Yes I have heard  about the new Norton.

 That is good news indeed. From the RPM  numbers
 I assume they are running silicon nitride rotor  bearings:)

 The AIXRO engine is the same size and weighs only 24  Kg
 or 52.8 pounds for a remarkable power to weight ratio
 of 3 pounds per  HP!!!!

 Norton should start their own rotary only road racing series  :)

 Mazda should do the same demonstrating to the world lap  time
 advantages on the same road courses the piston engines use.

 If  it were not for the artificial rev limit in Rolex GT
 and the artificial and  arbitrary minimum race car weight,
 Mazda rotaries would dominate any road  racing series.

 Who needs piston engines :)

 Paul  Lamar

 To shed a little light on the Norton subject.

 The Norton design was sold to Midwest engines ( England) Yes,
 aircraft,
 which produced two engines, a 50hp single rotor, which they got
 certified as
 an  aircraft engine in england. They also produced the two rotor 100HP
 version which  they were attempting to certify. The originals used
 Tillotsen (I
 think carbs and  an electronic ignition system. Sometime later they
 redesigned
 the intake to  include electronic ignition and fuel injection. Shortly
 before this change, the  company ran into financial problems and was
 bought by
 Diamond aircraft.

 The Norton engine, then renamed Midwest then renamed Diamond was
 produced
 shortly and then Diamond closed their Midwest branch (moved to
 Austria.) The
 aero engine single rotor has reemerged under the name Diamond
 [Austro Engines], I believe
 for one  of it's {Alexander Schelecter] motor gliders. I am unaware
 of the two rotor.
 [It is still there]

 It is my understanding that one of the key figures in Midwest, Richard
 Negus, a great guy, somehow got rights or whatever and is now the
 force between
 the Norton rotary, now, in England.

 Rich

 Over 500 Austro Engines one rotors have been sold.
 Here is a picture of Richard Negus when he was in Austria.
 Austro Engines is working on a larger version of the
 one rotor rated at 75 HP at only 6000 RPM or so. If fitted
 with silicon nitride rotor bearings RPM could
 go up to the 10,000 RPM range and HP to about 125 HP
 depending on the diameter of the p-port.

 Paul Lamar

Well Paul/ rotary engine developers

To answer your earlier question,  the LSA guys need piston engines.
For some reason the world wide rotary community cant seem to field a
viable AIRCRAFT rotary engine in the 80-125 HP range.  Rotamax ignored
all the conventional wisdom and paid a big price for it.  Good luck
getting a return email from Wankel on a purchase.  Even the recent
email from Poul Woelfle was a, we have something in the works.... Good
men like Richard Sohn have made great progress, but it has taken a lot
of time; as all great projects with maximum personal commitments and
minimum manpower do.

For those of us into aircraft design/construction, taking time off to
reinvent the single rotor Mazda is time spent not building airplanes.
I can do one or the other, not both.  Our Windwalker design is in cold
storage in part because of this problem.

So forgive the bitter tone, but there are still guys who need the 100
hp piston engine, if for no other reason than a stop-gap solution till
a viable LSA rotary engine is available.  Really available.

If I'm wrong, somebody please provide the contact information of the
company with the 100 horse rotary (not requiring me to R&D a redrive)
and I'll start eating crow.  I would even accept a kit offering, a la
aero-vee.

Still 100% in love with the rotary; ticked off that I have to use a
piston engine...

Chris Cosman

P.S.  Please don't kick me off the list for this little outburst.. :)

The Hirth gear box will work off the shelf. It is unfortunate
that Chris Dries, owner of Austro Engines and Diamond is focused on
selling his diesel and not his 2 rotor rotary engines but he was a victim
of Thielert more or less. We cannot all see clearly all of the time.

Paul Lamar