More than 20 years ago, Lycoming flirted with John Deere to develop a heavy fuel rotary and it did again with Detroit Diesel more recently. Both projects were dropped. Continental is no stranger to technological risk. Remember the Voyager engine? If you think the Voyager wasnt innovative, consider this: It was water-cooled, had high turbulence combustion chambers and a compression ratio of 11.4 to 1. In the 300-cubic-inch version, it demonstrated a BSFC of .345, which is better than the diesel technology Continental has acquired from SMA.
