Piper J3
Well Known Member
There are a lot of new folks on the forum these days so I thought I’d mention a little Rotax history…
When I bought my RV-12 back in 2015 I was curious why Rotax called their 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engine a 912. I pretty much know Lycoming and Continental nomenclature: IO-360 is opposed, fuel-injected, 360 cubic inch displacement. I asked the question over in the RotaxOwner Forum…
Christian Wilfling asked Hans Paierl, "The father of the 912" concerning this question, he laughed and said: back in 1989 Rotax were building engines with less than 1000cm3 and because our account department could not handle more than three numerics back then,
he decided to choose the niner for Aircraft Engines and the 12 for 1200cm3 cubic capacity of the first 80 HP Rotax 912.
When I bought my RV-12 back in 2015 I was curious why Rotax called their 4 cylinder horizontally opposed engine a 912. I pretty much know Lycoming and Continental nomenclature: IO-360 is opposed, fuel-injected, 360 cubic inch displacement. I asked the question over in the RotaxOwner Forum…
Christian Wilfling asked Hans Paierl, "The father of the 912" concerning this question, he laughed and said: back in 1989 Rotax were building engines with less than 1000cm3 and because our account department could not handle more than three numerics back then,
he decided to choose the niner for Aircraft Engines and the 12 for 1200cm3 cubic capacity of the first 80 HP Rotax 912.