Hi RC Man,
The reason for the success of the Kerosene start has a few components to it.
Firstly we developed an unique method of controlling fuel flow and pressure to a very accurate and repeatable standard. The intellectual rights to this method is my property and consist mostly of very specific software concepts. Only one other mnf of ECU.s has been given permission to use this technology and only for homebuilder use.
Secondly you need a well engineered combustor to startup efficiently with minimal heat stress on the engine.
You also need a very precision atomising fuel injector to be able to ignite kerosene consistently with only a glowplug as ignition source.
Then you also need to be able to deliver high pressure fuel to the injector while at the same time meter fuel to the low pressure vaporizer burners.
This is quite a tall order but with characteristic BMT innovation we have it working absolutely reliably. Every single owner of a BMT120KS has had 100% success.
I cannot obviously comment on why other manufacturers have not attempted this but it would appear that with the exception of one, maybe two, Autostart per se has been enough of a challenge already.
Even with the kerosene start as a feature, the BMT120KS is able to autostart with only 4 cell packs. The 120KS is also a unique design and we use a custom made high efficiency compressor to deliver 125 - 135N of thrust at RPM's of only 120K.
Availabilty of BMT engines have always been one of rather long waiting lists. Recently we took the decision to fully equip our workshop with the latest in CNC technology in order to be able to produce the quality parts we require in house. Attached is a picture of our new high precision 4 axis mill. We selected the American made HAAS due to its high quality and unsurpassed accuracy.
Cheers
Andre
[email protected]