Since you may be in the process of setting up your first 50cc plane you may not be aware of BME's history so some background may be in order for enlightenment. The "disappears/not reputable" is not warranted. It implies that a business failure was intentional and designed to deceive and abscond with funds. What follows may illustrate that BME is quite reputable.

Although the original owner of BME failed, he had been in business developing, producing, and supporting his products for many years before he lost the business. There were several reasons that the business failed, most of which were never discussed in various RC internet forums. The reality is he did not simply dissapear, but he did ultimately let his customers down after the 115. Many other businesss have followed a similar path before and after that time. It's simple luck that our discount store buying habits and lack of foresight hasn't forced other high quality engines into a similar fate. BTW, the only "headache" that BME ever had was the original 115 induction issue. Up to that point they had been producing light, powerful, and reliable singles and twins for many years. BME has much longer engine history than any of the current eastern imports that have played a large part in undercutting the sales of domestic engine manufacturers. Please don't use a lower price/reasonable quality arguement to bolster the position of the eastern imports. That dog will stop hunting in the very near future.

Fortunately there were others that were interested in buying the business and contnuing the product line. They had no responsibiloity to resolve the issues with the 115 yet they elected to do so. They also refunded deposit money to customers that faied to receive a new design that was not released due to severe financial hardship. Agreed, doing so increased the customer rapport they would need grow the business, but they ate the costs of time and resources to fix the 115 issues while improving the original design to turn it into a powerful and high quality product. They also managed to re-tool and re-design other engines and put on the market those that had been promised but never delivered by the previous owner. Many difficult trials and tribulations that someone of weaker resolve would not have done.

As for the "knockoffs", one might want to take a closer look at some of the products to see what they are getting and view the history timeline of the various "knockoff" manufacturers. There isn't much of a history with all but 3 of them (SPE, 3mm/TOC, and DL) and we have no concept of how long they intend to remain in production. They don't do much in the way of advertising and tell us little in the way of their long term intentions. They leave all that up to their dealers to vocalize, with much being left to conjecture. So for now they remain an unknown where continued support is concerned. There have been several "knockoff" manufacturers that have quietly faded away since they reached the market in only the previous couple of years.

R/C engines are not BME's only product line so there is now the means for the company to continue generating revenue when small engine sales are low. That permits them the ability to remain in business during weak economic times. Don't be too quick to fault the new owner of BME for the failure of the previous person. BME is doinbg more than they were required to do while still turning out powerful and reliable products while developing new to expand the product line. If you look at the state of the current auto industry that may be more than we might be able to depend on with GM and Chrysler. BME is taking care of business without benefit of a taxpayer funded bailout[8D]