Engineered Propulsion Systems completes $900,000 funding round

Engineered Propulsion Systems, a New Richmond-based advanced manufacturing company, has just completed a funding round of $900,000.

The funding will go towards seeking certification for its Graflight V-8 engine, envisioned as a “greener” diesel engine to replace traditional gas engines for civilian and military aircraft.

Designs for the engine, as well as the production facility, must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration before the company moves forward with the production phase.

According to CFO Paul Mayer, the project has been seven years in the making for the 10-year old company, and is only one year from being completed. Funding rounds like the one just completed have supported the time-consuming process of being certified.

Once the process is done, however, Mayer anticipates a receptive market.

“We expect the demand to be greater than our ability to produce engines,” said Mayer. “We will have to allocate engines to specific customers.”

The engine will relegate actions that the pilot normally performs to the computer system, lowering human error risk while simultaneously reducing long-term maintenance costs. According to the company’s website, the time between overhauls is increased by 50 to 100 percent through the use of longer-lasting parts made of steel and iron.

The Graflight V-8 will work with a variety of supplementary products, including composite and aluminum propellers. This is possible because of the low vibration that will be produced by the engine.

It will also run on several types of fuels including Jet A, JP-8 or diesel, meaning it can also work in a variety of military vehicles such as helicopters, troop carriers and drones.

Mayer added that there are no competitors in the market conducting a clean-sheet design process, which makes the company’s lightweight diesel engine unique.

According to the company’s website, the Graflight V-8 engine is projected to deliver 40 percent fuel savings compared to turbine engines while cutting CO2 emissions by 30 percent over comparable Avgas engines and 17 percent over competing diesel engines.

The company employs 24 in Wisconsin, five in Germany and a team of 50 software developers that are working on the programming side of the project.

–By Alex Moe,
WisBusiness.com