Well Willy, having been thru the growth (since 1975) and the start of the decline (2001) of the Orbital Engine Company once can make some interesting observations. The key one being that the investors & stockbrokers, are not so much interested in the realty (the truth), but in talking things up for their potential personal gain. Just before I started they had installed one very early 7 chamber, 3.5 litre Orbital engine in a Ford Cortina (the first of the body shapes that could accept the 6 cyl Falcon engine). A video was made of it driving down the road. Cool, wonderful, smooth, the savior of the motor industry, little Aussi inventor, blah, blah…
What the vid (well, film really) didn’t show was an engine and its spark plugs nearly dragging on the ground and the smokescreen (plus) belching out behind the car, clever photography really. Enough for the suits though and we, green faced juniors, thought it was all wonderful. And it was really, the time there was fantastic, really good people and a great learning opportunity for all. And a great place to make foreigners (motorbikes and engines) after work. Lots of interest in bikes and 2 strokes, heaven really. The Orbital Alma Mater.
However, it did have commercial success in the end with applications of the 2 fluid DI system in outboards, and small scooters. The most notable being the Mercury Optimax outboards, which continues to this day and one version, driven by the US military to be able to run on diesel fuel, still with spark ignition. In addition they also make here in Perth, a small 50 cc engine kit that is used for military drones. This runs on Jet A fuel. Apparently it is a requirement for some military to use the same fuel for all vehicles etc, primarily for logistical reasons.
Today became tomorrow….
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
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