Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) engine unveiled

UK-based RCV Engines is best known globally for its range of model aircraft engines but the unveiling yesterday of a prototype 125cc Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) scooter engine could put it on the map in a far more significant way. The RCV engine is ideally suited to sub-250cc applications such as motorcycles, scooters and power tools where it offers 100PS/litre performance and manufacturing costs akin to those of a two-stroke, with the emission levels and fuel consumption of a four-stroke. International demand for small motorcycle engines is massive with the Chinese, Indian and Indonesian markets accounting for 22 million small capacity engines annually – traditionally, these have been two-stroke engines but with the advent of exhaust emission regulations the bulk of production is now represented by larger, more expensive and less powerful 4-strokes. The RCV engine offers a particularly attractive solution for this large and growing market sector and also has application in chain saws, leaf blowers, strimmers and the emerging Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market. Better still, RCV engines run well on alternative fuels such as kerosene and bio-fuels and significant further potential remains for this engine concept in areas such as variable valve timing, variable compression ratio and supercharging which could improve already impressive performance to new heights.

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