John Thompson, of Kansas, used the cylinder assemblies from Honda weed-eater engines to produce this flat four aero engine int he 1990s. His custom crankcase holds the oil for lubrication and the engine runs gasoline with spark ignition. Spark is provided by a remote electronic capacitor discharge ignition with a spark advance linked to the carburetor linkage. Instead of making an intake manifold to operate all four cylinders from one carburetor, John chose to leave each cylinder assembly as it came from the factory with the carburetor attached to the head. Then he designed a geared linkage to connect and operate the four carburetors from one throttle cable. It swings a 24-10 propeller, but no recorded specifications were found to verify its capacity or performance. The engine is 13″-long, 13″-wide, and 11″-high.
Thompson Designs Flat Four Model Airplane Engine
