The Pentagon Just Upped its Investment in this MIT Grads Startup to Increase Fight Endurance for Military Drones

LiquidPiston and its MIT grad CEO Alec Shkolnik have spent more than a decade on a revolutionary design that inverts the rotary engine that Felix Wankel created in 1960.  The result is a small, powerful, multi-fuel capable engine: one that LiquidPiston believes will help drone manufacturers increase flight endurance by more than 50%.

The company has already raised $18 million, but DARPA has just added $2.5 million (bringing DARPA’s total investment to $6 million) to continue development of its 30kW X4 rotary diesel engine prototype.  This additional funding comes as the company has passed all of the requirements of Phase 1 of the project.

The engine design has major benefits to offer.  “For the military, LiquidPiston’s propulsion can also reduce UAV engine heat signature and minimizing vibration impact on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance equipment,” says the company.

Like many emerging technologies initially developed for the military, however, LiquidPiston sees major advantages for the commercial market.  Shkolnik recently attended Uber Elevate, and believes “LiquidPiston‘s engine could play a vital role as a hybrid, onboard generator to make vertical takeoffs more fuel efficient for UAV consumer travel as well,” says the company. “While Uber remains steadfast in their belief that they can produce a truly electric-only flying vehicle, vertical takeoff has proven very difficult even with hybrid solutions given engine load imbalances at takeoff vs. while cruising.”