Net Heads, as promised earlier I hereby forward something about the BMW R1100, that is used in Microlights in Europe. A company in England is offering these complete with gears and everything. The interesting part is a centrifugal clutch, that allows the prop to freely spin when the engine is off. The address is: http://www.microlightsport.co.uk/Catalogue/bmwengine.htm
Also, I stumbled across a German webpage from a school for A&E Mechanics in Munich, that has modified a small three cylinder Diesel engine from VW. Looking at the latest developments coming from VW and Audi, these could be interesting in the close future. Audi just released a 1.4 liter 3 cylinder turbo charged and direct injected diesel engine, that develops about 90 HP. The engine block is aluminum, and to my knowledge the engine weight is way under 100 kg. The real intersting part is, that the engine develops a torque of about 215 Nm (about 165 ft.lb.) from 1900 to abot 3000 rpm. This would make it ideal for a direct driven machine. I will try to get more information fromt the German school about their work, anybody who is interested may mail me directly. Cheers, Wolfgang
