1930s aircraft an inspiration for 100 mpg cars

[Chuck]

a 2.5-liter engine from his company will provide the same power as one of the 6.5-liter engines used by truck manufacturers today, but weigh 300 pounds less.

Michael Kanellos - CNET - Jan 15, 2008

How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life? ~Charles A. Lindbergh, Reader's Digest, November 1939

EcoMotors is working on a futuristic diesel engine that's similar in concept to something Charles Lindbergh may have once used.

The company, which came out of stealth mode over the weekend, wants to bring what is called an opposed piston/opposed cylinder diesel engine to market. In ordinary engines, pistons pop up and down (or back and forth if laying down) inside an individual cylinder capped by a cylinder head. Gas is injected into the chamber and gets combusted by the action of the piston, among other factors.

In EcoMotors' engine, there is a double-length cylinder with a piston at each end. (There are no cylinder heads in-between.) A single-engine module consists of four pistons and two cylinders, said COO John Coletti. The pistons and cylinders are horizontal too, so car and engine manufacturers can stack them...[Read More]

[janneyc]

Neat concept. But, it reminds me of the press StarRotor was getting a while back. They claimed they had an engine that would be 60% more efficient and much lighter. Hopefully this will take off much more quickly though.

[pdk]

I wonder how its smog emissions are. If this is a lot cleaner than a 2-stroke, look out.

[FocusGuy77]

Looks like heat would be an issue with all that burning bunched together.