Rick,

Jett Engineering offers, and has offered for quite a while, engines specifically designed for sport flying and aerobatics. The Jett 90L, 100L and 120L are all "60" size engines that are incredible in "60/90" size aerobatic aircraft and pattern ships. Each of those is available in side or rear exhaust. The 100L and 120L are specifically designed for bigger props, lower rpms (9000-11000 range), while the 90L is pretty versitile..... Jett offers a version that turns 11,000 rpm (aerobatics), and that same engine reconfigured as a 90LX that turns up more in the 15,000-16,000 rpm range (speed/prop jets). All depends on your application.


This is a 100L combined with the turbo-jett muffler. 15x8 prop.

The Jett BSE FIRE-120L is an absolute monster of an engine. With a quite pipe, set long, it can turn some serious prop, and run with near linear throttle response.


As for the original topic and post.....

The American engine manufacturers are still out there. They are few and far between, but they endure.

The problem is, USA based manufacturers all have to deal with the alphabet gang: IRS, EPA, DoHS, DoC, INS, DWC, AFL, CIO, eieio.... Raw material and processed material costs here in the USA are some of the highest anywhere in the world. And, we have issues like insurance (huge cost), health care, works comp ...... and of course most folks in the USA like to eat and live in a house.

Obviously, there is cost involved with all of this that ends up part of the sale price of your product. FAR FAR more cost than incurred than by any "eastern" engine manufacture. As a result, the American made products must be A) Priced accordingly to deal with those incurred costs (expensive) B) Or, you have to compromise on design, and sometimes compromise on materials. C) MUST by their nature be superior products, and often geared toward specialty markets.

Where does that all lead? Well, first ..... it is nearly impossible for a USA based engine manufacturer to do business or even exist because of situation "A" - if you price the engines accordingly, an equal product provided from the east will end up costing less, even with high volume and the business owner choosing to eat rice and live in a tent. So you lose market share. If you follow path "B", you produce crap engines, and people are not going to buy them. Folks are no longer "buy american" type of guys. Impossible to stay in business.

The soloution for USA businesses, as Jett, Nelson, DA, and a few others have followed ...... is solution "C". People will pay for a superior product, if it is indeed superior, and there is an added value to product by way of tech support, warranty, quick parts availability.

Even the european engine manufactures have the same problem. Exchange rates vary, Department of Commerce policies change, tarrifs change, favored nation status changes.... Its hard to set a price point. In the end, the guys in the 'east' building and shipping engines, somehow, for $20 each (when the materials here in the USA ALONE would be $40 - an example only) are hard to compete with as long as people decide to buy them.

In most cases, those "eastern" engines are very good products. So, I can not at all argue against buying one. And the average sport pilot is going to look at the name on the box, and the price tag, then ask his flying buddies of their experiences, and make his decision based on that.

Companies/engines like Fox and K&B are still around, but have undergone serious changes in the past 10 years. They added some product introductions, and I believe both companies have "other" profitable business ventures that at least permit them to maintain the model aircraft product line. Some of the engines are the same, but the folks behind the desks are totally different. And the CNC machining helps keep some of the product costs reasonable. The K&B engines are still pretty good products that perform very well. The Fox engines are not bad - but in all honesty, the RC engines they offered for many years (mainly due to their carbs) were unreliable, even if they were powerful on the top end.

The RJL/Kraft engine is a good example of an older design that endures. Its a good engine. But its an old design.

Anyway.... thats enough .....

Bob