Talk:Sarich orbital engine

This has been interesting. Much of my childhood was spent hearing (Australian media) stories about this brilliant world-beating engine that nobody would buy. Turns out, it was a piece of crap. Or it was an engineering marvel that required only a few components to be made of magic. Every young journalist who reports on some new engine design needs to know that most technically minded people think of at least one novel engine in their lifetime.

Is there any merit to the conspiracy theory about ford buying rights to the patents and suppressing the technology? These patents have expired a long time ago and yet nobody has tried to develop this engine. --DieselDude (talk) 06:05, 12 November 2008 (UTC)

My recollection is that BHP, (not Ford) bought a majority holding in Sarich's company. Sarich then used the money to build a small real estate empire. I also recollect the Sarich orbital design being shown on the Australian ABC "The inventors" program and remarking at the time that all the sliding surfaces and edges would be impossible to lubricate and cool for any length of time. The Orbital company survives on licence fees for its direct fuel injection technology for 2 strokes of which Mercury Outboard was an early adopter. Interestingly, Tim Bauer's 2008 Rolex Laureate award for retro-fitted direct injection for 3rd world 2-stroke vehicles is based on Orbital technology.Sageofabbott (talk) 12:55, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

It was BHP - reportedly they also did well out of the Orbital engine financially even though it didn't really work.Clivedog (talk) 02:31, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Joe Hilbig: The rotor of the Wankel engine does NOT spin in place; it rolls about the interior just as this engine does. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.225.24.16 (talk) 20:38, 4 May 2009 (UTC)