Engine Technologies

The race is on to find viable materials for building on other planets, and one team has (thankfully) moved on from its last creation made of blood and urine to unveil a new biocomposite brick that's not only much stronger but a little more palatable.

Rolls-Royce says it's finished building the first demonstrator for its massive UltraFan engine, which will eventually hit the skies in airliners to be developed in the 2030s. Testing begins soon, with expectations of a 25% leap in efficiency.

Hydrogen combustion engines offer a chance to go (nearly) green without losing the sound, feel and excitement of driving a noisy, mechanical, piston-driven engine. Toyota has been racing one, and now it's evaluating a prototype Corolla for the street.

Utah's Transcend Energy Group claims it has a relatively simple and cheap way to dramatically increase the torque output of combustion engines, simply by replacing the standard connecting rods with new two-piece designs with a secondary joint.

UNSW researchers have prototyped and tested a retrofit system that converts diesel engines to run on 90% hydrogen, radically reducing both carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions while boosting efficiency by an impressive 26% in the process.

MAN Engines is working toward a greener future for water travel with its new Smart Hybrid Experience. The scalable marine drive ecosystem allows customers to flexibly combine traditional engines and electric motors into customized hybrid drives.

Aquarius Engines has developed a tiny hydrogen engine it hopes can serve as a range-extender in electric vehicles and as a standalone micro-generator. Weighing just 22 lb, the small, simple engine uses a single moving piston to develop power.

UCF researchers say they've trapped a sustained explosive detonation, fixed in place, for the first time, channeling its enormous power into thrust in a new detonation engine that could propel a hypersonic aircraft up to 17 times the speed of sound.

Mercury Marine recently pulled the covers off an all-new flagship, a powerful hunk of water-dipped muscle it bills as the world's first V12 outboard engine. The naturally aspirated 7.6-liter V12 Verado produces 600 hp.

A fresh and extremely powerful take on the rotary engine. Connecticut company LiquidPiston is developing a portable generator for the US Army using its X-Engine, which promises as much power as the Army's current gen-set at one-fifth the size.

DARPA has awarded a US$14-million contract to the Gryphon Technologies engineering firm to support the development and demonstration of a nuclear rocket engine for the agency's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program.

It’s been a long road of research, development and, more recently, testing but the team at GE Aviation has now earned official US certification for the world’s largest commercial aircraft engine, the GE Aviation GE9X.