Nutating disc engine

In its basic configuration the core of the engine is a nutating non-rotating disc, with the center of its hub mounted in the middle of a Z-shaped shaft.

The details of operation and potential of the Meyer nutating disk engine have been described by Professor T. Alexander (publishes as T. Korakianitis) and co-workers.

[2][3][4][5] A single prototype has been run briefly under its own power, with a power- to-weight ratio equal to those of typical current four-stroke engines.

It is claimed by the authors of the developer/US Army Research Laboratory/NASA technical evaluation report that a production version of the new engine (for UAV applications) might provide a power-to-weight ratio of 1.6 hp/lb or 2.7 kW/kg.

[9] A company called McMasters, previously headed by successful American entrepreneur Harold McMaster, is also developing a nutating motor burning a mixture of pure hydrogen and pure oxygen that, it claims, will give 200 hp but weigh only one-tenth that of gasoline/air production automotive engines with the same output.

Plans are also being made to develop a version "the size of a coffee can" that can be built directly into wheel hubs, eliminating the traditional drive train entirely.

This concept was first attempted in the British Leyland Mini Moke[citation needed] but was, at that time, severely hampered by lack of reliable synchronization – which is now more commonplace because of ubiquitous miniaturized embedded modern-day computer chips.

Its main castings were made at the Morley Park foundry near Heage, and it weighed 7 tons and generated 35 horsepower at a head of 96 feet of water.

Frank Nixon in his book "The Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire" (1969) commented that "The most striking characteristic of this ingenious machine is perhaps the difficulty experienced by those trying to describe it; the patentees & Stephen Glover only succeeded in producing descriptions of monumental incomprehensibility".

[11] A larger model was constructed to drain lead mines at Alport near Youlgreave and many steam versions were subsequently built by other people.

It worked well enough to convince the Directors of the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal to order six tugs which could tow as many as sixteen barges a day at a reasonable speed.

During legal proceedings in 1851 following the bankruptcy of two of the BPDE's principal investors, it was said that the disc engine had not made a profit and that to have relied on it as a realisable asset "was absurd".

But Bishopp had opted to revert to the Dakeynes' original design which had a yoke which took most of the dynamic forces and greatly reduced the load on the bearings and seals.

By 1849 a number of Bishopp engines had been sold, and one was used with great success to run the printing presses of the Times newspaper, while another produced by G. Rennie and Son was used to power the iron gunboat HMS Minx.

In 1853 a disc engine 13 inches in diameter was purchased from Rennie to propel a 55 foot Russian gunboat, which it did at a speed of 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph).