Tim,

You are correct in your assessment of where and how the testing is taking place. Lot's of flight hours and big bucks behind the process that involves every day engines. A very large number of the improvements and increases in displacements the hobby industry is seeing are coming from information developed and disbursed by people in the areas you noted. I can't think of any hobby engine manufacturer that has the funds available to independantly obtain the developments that are being incorporated in their engines. That's as far as I can go with that train of thought though.

It's nice knowing that we get to enjoy some of the trickle down effects of that here in the hobby.