Hi Paul:

I have been following the rotary engine discussion for a few months now.

My particular interest is in 40 to 50 hp rotary engines as I am looking for the most light
weight and efficient engine for an ultralight airplane.

I came across the Advanced Innovative Engineering rotary engines a few days ago and they look pretty good.

I am sending this email as a query - do you know anything about the AIE rotary engines?

In advance, thank you,

John Douglass

Not much. I have seen them and heard about them.

Unfortunately small and efficient are conflicting right at the moment. Most small rotary engines use
charge cooled rotors or pumped air rotor cooling. The BSFC is in the range of .5 to .6 pounds
of fuel per HP per hour while the oil cooled rotor Mazda is in the range .45 to .5.

Of course they are better than a 2 cycle which is in the range of
.60 to .70.

Paul Lamar

You may be wiser to build a Mazda  p-port single rotor engine with aluminum end housings. It may be a bit heavier and the power more than enough. The advantage there is the takeoff and climb out would be exceptional and you would then just need to pull the throttle(s) back for max speed requirements. For many aircraft engines $10,000 does not go very far.
Dale Davies



Hello John,
I am putting a single rotor together for my microlight, At this stage it weighs in at 45 Kgs. There will be a bit more weight to add to the finished engine but with no turbo and P port you can expect 130Hp from the unit. To get down to this weight as Paul says you will need the aluminium side plates, most likely at this stage from Racing Beat in the US.

I am in New Zealand and the exchange rate hurt a bit at the time of purchase. I don’t know where you live but I can't see you getting much change out of $15,000 US if you were to go down this rout.

For the power you are looking for a Rotax 503 now not made any more would be an option if you could find a used one. The Rotax 583 is still in production, still a lot more HP than you want. These engines are 2 strokes, I have a 503 in a Challenger 11 that I fly, some have gotten 1000 hours out of these engines if they are looked after.
You might also look at the Hirth range of engines, also 2 stroke.

Regards Andrew Campbell

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