I have been thinking a lot about this extraordinary engine lately.
When Felix Wankel invented this he had no idea it would
ever generate 650 HP and weigh less than 200 pounds.
This is a monumental achievement.

Historically this development is on a par with the jet engine and the
turbo prop engine on a power to weight basis. Actually
Felix Wankel did not design it in. It just happened that a reasonable
geometry Wankel is an extremely robust mechanism.

Ask any piston engine engineer/designer. The end is not in
sight for the Wankel. Just wait until Mazda or some one else
builds a turbo compound version. Not only will it best a turbo prop
on power to weight ratio but it will burn half the fuel.

Most people can not comprehend this. I have been thinking about
it for 46 years :-)

I just completed the starter motor mounting. A serious mistake was made on
the starter mounting holes locations. They were .150 inches off on the x
and y axis.
It took me ten trips walking back and fourth from  the TTC hangar
to my hangar where I had the mill doing the cutting. About 100 yards
each way.

Trail and error cut and fit.  It is a kludge and not cosmetic but it
will work.
There was no way to get the air plane on a surface plate to measure things.

The "engineer" that "designed" this was fired a couple of months ago :-)

Also it took us about a month to fix the mistakes in the gear box.
There was an automotive spring plate coupling between the engine
and the gear box. This engine would have chewed that up and spit it
out in milliseconds. We replaced it with a rubber coupling.

Paul Lamar


Your TTC install looks great. One can actually see the engine, and can
probably get at most components if needed. You might consider offering
your design-services to Detroit et al. :)

Robin Berglund

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