An engine with no crankshaft, where the pistons float on air? It’s not a dream; it’s a free piston engine and it might be the next major advance in car tech. When we think of automotive technology of ...

Mazda's five-decade-long, largely futile efforts on behalf of the rotary engine demonstrate how difficult it is to unseat the conventional piston engine. Yet new concepts continue to emerge, ...

Cars and planes aren't one in the same, but they share more in common than you think. Let's break it down.

Sandia National Laboratory led by Sandia researcher Peter Van Blarigan that has been testing physical components of free-piston engines which could be 50% efficient. This is about twice as good as ...

You've heard that pistons have rings, but have you ever wondered why there are three? Here's how piston rings work together ...

One of the many challenges facing engine designers is the need to increase power output while simultaneously retaining or improving efficiency. Although a four-cylinder engine is still an engineering ...

There's more to piston shapes than you might think. Whether it's domed, flat, or dished, all pistons have their fair share of pros and cons when it comes to performance and efficiency. Understand that ...

Despite being in use for more than a century, combustion engines are still way to complex and inefficient in turing fossil fuel to mechanical work. Naturally, engineers have been battling their way ...

We all know how a conventional internal combustion engine works, with a piston and a crankshaft. But that’s by no means the only way to make an engine, and one of the slightly more unusual ...

The newly formed organization will host a series of meetings of its members to exchange research results, insights and ideas regarding opposed-piston engines with hydrogen combustion. Several ...

Free piston engines could achieve efficiencies of 50% which is almost double a regular gas combustion engine. However, new super efficient diesel engines could be even better, plus diesels would be ...

Piston-engined fighters ruled the roost for thirty years. A brutal survival of the fittest ensured a rapid evolution of these characterful machines; the final fighters were over six times faster and ...