Nutating Disc Engine - Patents and Production History

Patents and Production History

U.S. patent number 5,251,594 was granted to Leonard Meyer of Illinois in 1993 for a "nutating internal combustion disc engine". The Meyer Nutating Engine is a new type of internal combustion engine with higher power density than conventional reciprocating piston engines and which can operate on a variety of fuels, including gasoline, heavy fuels and hydrogen. The patent made reference to various 20th-century nutating engines in the United States, but no reference at all to the original Dakeyne engine, described below, in its prior art. The similarity to its 166-year-old hydraulic predecessor is strikingly evident, the main change being that the disc is not entirely flat but slightly convex.

The details of operation as well as the potential of the Meyer nutating disk engine has been published by Professor T. Alexander (publishes as T. Korakianitis) and co-workers

A single prototype has been run briefly under its own power, with a power- to-weight ratio equal to those of typical current four-stroke engines. It is claimed by the authors of the developer/US Army/NASA technical evaluation report that a production version of the new engine (for UAV applications) might provide a power-to-weight ratio of 1.6 hp/lb or 2.7 kW/kg. This is slightly better than current automotive production engines but nowhere near the Graupner G58 or the Desert Air DA 150.

A company called McMasters, previously headed by successful American entrepreneur Harold McMaster, is also developing a nutating motor burning a mixture of pure hydrogen and pure oxygen that, it claims, will give 200 hp but weigh only one-tenth that of gasoline/air production automotive engines with the same output. So far the McMasters company claims to have spent $10 million on its development. Plans are also being made to develop a version "the size of a coffee can" that can be built directly into wheel hubs, eliminating the traditional drive train entirely. This concept was first attempted in the British Leyland Mini Moke but was, at that time, severely hampered by lack of reliable synchronization – which is now more commonplace because of ubiquitous miniaturized embedded modern day computer chips. A gasoline-powered version is also planned by McMasters, which is claimed to give substantially cleaner operation than traditional engines.