A company called Astron Aerospace is touting their “revolutionary engine” which they’re developing under the name “Omega” (Omega is the greek letter often used to represent angular velocity.)
I don’t know if it’s revolutionary in its technology or whether it’s just hype, but its internal parts do seem to go around and around in revolutions.
Their engine seems to operate at very high rpm and with very low vibrations, and is claimed to have a very high power-to-weight ratio:
(More explicit textual narration in the video seems to start ~@3:30 and again ~@5:00 showing the axial cross-section view)
The lower wheel in the animation is surrounded by a gap, which serves as a circular arc-shaped piston shaft through which an attached nub-like piston-head travels, going around and around.
As the nub goes around the circular arc, driven by expanding combustion gases behind it, it also pushes out in front of it exhaust gases left over from the previous combustion, which leave via an exhaust port.
The upper wheel in the animation seems to be a passive wheel that’s mainly just providing a seal for compression purposes on the power stroke. So it’s a rotating seal with a rotating gap that allows passage of the piston-head. Both wheels are linked by gears to keep these respective male & female parts of theirs in sync.
It seems to be a Rotary piston engine, although not a Wankel type, and instead having a different geometry. It has a smoother purely axisymmetric rotation which appears to produce less vibrations.
The engine then seems to be able to operate at high rpm. It starts off as an Otto cycle engine, and then seems to transition to Diesel autoignition at high enough RPM (See @3:58 in video) So its compression seems to improve as rpm gets higher.
I really like this concept, and find it to be quite elegant. Like a turbine, it’s a true rotary engine and conserves angular momentum, unlike a linear reciprocating piston engine and even the Wankel “rotary” engine. This particular engine is also self-supercharging.
But the downside of this engine is that it has to operate at very high rpm in order to achieve its superior efficiency and power-to-weight. That would mean a heavy reduction drive would be required in order to transmit its mechanical power to tires or a propeller.
However, if it was coupled with a dynamo or generator, just like in an auxiliary power unit, then its high rpm power could easily be transformed into electrical power to run an electric motor (like say an electric paramotor?)
