RCV awarded engine contract for Micro Air Vehicle

December 8, 2006 There’s a delicious irony about the success of UK-based RCV Engines. The company achieved international recognition for its range of model aircraft engines then moved into a new market earlier this year with the development of its proprietary Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) engine for 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. The engine is so promising that it has been selected by Honeywell to produce a demonstrator engine based on RCV technology for use in Honeywell’s backpack-sized Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) – the irony is of course that the company is effectively back in the same domain it started from, though model aircraft enthusiasts who own one of RCV’s traditional SP or CD Series engines can rejoice in knowing that company is also powering some of the most innovative flying machines ever built. Another plus for the Rotating Cylinder Valve (RCV) engine is its exceptional power to weight ratio and it’s ability to run on a variety of fuels. The MAV autonomous surveillance aircraft has been developed as part of the US Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) MAV Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration programme and is small enough for a foot soldier to carry. It is designed to provide soldiers with improved situational awareness without exposing them to enemy fire through forward- and downward-looking video cameras that relay information to a remote ground station video terminal.

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