This is a pretty damn cool engine...

It uses compressed air to start! No electric starter! Cold-start to 2,500RPM under 1 second.
 

Really cool, but still not in production. Rumor has it that Zoche is a paper company set up to mooch off of EU development money. Such a shame! We need this engine, especially if it's everything it is supposed to be. I wonder what it would take to purchase the rights and have it produced here in the US?
 

More likely is APT's OPOC engine:

http://www.propulsiontech.com/opocfamily.html
 

Zoche has apparently abandoned the compressed air part of the design in favor of electric start. Still not yet in production.
 

Zoche refuses to answer direct inquiries. Requests are answered with an unchanged carbon copy response for the last 7 years in part indicating "several more years" to certification.

Repeated indications from insiders are that Continental and or Lycoming have payed Zoche off to remain unavailable, keep quiet, stall and let his project lie dormant. Textron, owner of Lycoming, has very deep pockets.

Market analysis showes Zoche's diesels will take enough of the market share to threaten the existence of both Continental and Lycoming in just a few years.

Everyone is keenly aware that Continental and Lycoming's engine technology are locked in the 1950s. By shutting down Zoche they have condemned aircraft power-plant development to remain in the stone age, while damaging aircraft manufacturers and owners worldwide.

Public condemnation and exposing these two companies for their monopolistic practices that strangle aircraft engine development are the only means by which aircraft owners may ever see a Zoche. It's an engine that burns 40% less fuel, burns 30% cheaper fuel, weighs 20% less, requires 40 - 50% less cooling (drag), pollutes far less and has 1/2 the noise signature. It's a technology that should not be allowed to die for the purpose of lining the pockets of these two companies.
 

Good grief. If Zoche could shut down both Continental and Lycoming, then he'd make more money in doing so than either company could possibly justify in buying him off.
 

@ poster 6: Unfortunately I seriously doubt that it is as simple as selling a better mousetrap when one is going up against huge conglomerates like Textron and Teledyne. Such entities not only have deep pockets, they have woven themselves so tightly into the political structure of our government, there is no such thing as a fair shake for truly disruptive technologies that don't have backing from other powerful patrons. Poster 5, sadly, has it exactly right.