All things come to an end eventually, and I’d be happy never to smell diesel fumes in the Alps again.
Re Lycoming powered cars, the company has a long history. I like this Lycoming powered car better, I used to work on a couple like it when I was in university…
Quoting from Hemmings Motor News
“According to the official Lycoming history, the company supplied 57 different engine models to more than 250 different automobile and truck companies in the United States, Canada, England and France. That doesn’t count the tractor, boat, aircraft and stationary power supply manufacturers to which Lycoming supplied engines. We’ve compiled a partial list that encompasses about a quarter of the automotive companies that used Lycoming engines.
Allen
Alter
Apperson
Apple
Arbenz
Auburn
Bell
Birch
Bradley-Ford
Bush
Canadian Crow
Champion
Checker
Classic
Commonwealth
Corbitt
Cord
Crow-Elkhart
Dagmar
Delsey
Dixie Flyer
Dort
Duesenberg
duPont
Elcar
Federal
Gardner
Geronimo
Gilford
Graham-Paige
Hamilin-Holmes
Hatfield
Henney Cab Co.
Hercules
Herreshoff
Heseltine
H.J. Koehler
International Harvester
Kar
Kearns
Kelsey Motorette
Kissel
Locomobile
Marshall
Martin-Parry (Atlas)
McFarlan
Napolean
Niagara
Norwalk
Pan
Partin-Palmer
Piedmont
Relay
Republic
Roamer
Saf-T-Cab
St. Didier
Seneca
Skelton
Southern Truck and Car Co.
Stewart
Stork
Texan
Texas Motor Car Assn.
Tulsa
Velie
White
Willys-Overland Crossley
Worldmobile
Yellow Cab Co"
Designs so succesful they all raced the dodo to the finish line.
I guess somebody other than me will see whether manufacturers of diesel aero engines still enjoy their niche market in 80 years, or whether Lycoming will still be dominant at that time, 160 years after they moved into the niche…. 
The smaller a company you are, the more of a niche business you need to be in, in order to capture a significant market share. And without a significant (some MBA pontificators will say “dominant”) market share you never make money.
…or whether Lycoming will still be dominant at that time,…
Hasn’t Lycoming been operating under chapter 11 most of the time? To be bought out by companies who themselves operate under chapter 11 most of the time… In my part of the world where there is no such thing as a chapter 11, Lycoming would have gone under more than half a century ago.
what_next wrote:
Hasn’t Lycoming been operating under chapter 11 most of the time? To be bought out by companies who themselves operate under chapter 11 most of the time… In my part of the world where there is no such thing as a chapter 11, Lycoming would have gone under more than half a century ago.
That would be news to me. Lycoming has been owned by Textron for the last 30 years, and AVCO before that since the 1930’s. Apparently Textron made $698 million dollars last year. 50-60 years ago Lycoming was making something like 700 aircraft engines a month, mainly for Piper I think at that time, during the boom years of GA. So its not clear to me where your view comes from.
Peter wrote:
The smaller a company you are, the more of a niche business you need to be in, in order to capture a significant market share. And without a significant (some MBA pontificators will say “dominant”) market share you never make money.
Lycoming moved into aircraft engines in the 1930s under pressure from consolidation in the auto industry, GM of course being the major consolidator at that time. I suppose it was a pretty good move overall. AVCO reformulated Auburn Cord Duesenberg (including Lycoming) into aviation and away from autos. Prior to that, while expanding into aviation, Lycoming had slowly moved into more and more of a niche role in the auto industry, eventually supplying only very expensive cars. For example, this 265 HP DOHC straight 8 engine was a Lycoming product, fitted to a Duesenberg Model J.
In my part of the world where there is no such thing as a chapter 11
Thielert managed a similar thing – operating as a business while being in administration. It makes sense, if there is a demand for the product. They went under largely because of Mr Thielert’s fraud
Peter that’s a good point and (on topic) one aspect of the Thielert bankrupcy is that, as I understand it, diesel aero engines of that design are now manufactured by two companies, one of which doesn’t talk about it, doesn’t sell to GA, and isn’t in Germany The Chinese didn’t buy the military rights from the bankrupcy court.
Much of the development work for aircraft diesel engines (e.g. Thielert) was paid for by the UAV business, which has nothing to do with cars and which has US Government customers with deep pockets. The interest in heavy fuel for that application hasn’t changed and I think unless UAVs move entirely to turbine engines, development funding could continue from that source.
