... and buy all the beads I want. And have a big traveling bead party.
Things are looking up for Walter's engine.
Well, I guess we could say that the Phase I SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant was a success. We got the grant last year, and finished with it in May. In April, at DoD's invitation, we submitted application for the Phase II grant, and today the letter we got began: "Congratulations, ....."
There is some negotiation to be done. I guess you could say, the letter is a statement that both parties want to negotiate and now the details will be worked out.
We expect to get the $50K "Phase I Option" which is available to applicants in negotiation for Phase II, which isn't awarded until September.
Mary Schafer was saying that she had never had any of the SBIR projects continue to Phase III. That Phase puts the product into manufacturing, basically a contract by the government to purchase the product. But even if Department of Defense doesn't want us to manufacture the product, Phase II will show the product to be viable and desirable.
Phase I just shows that they are interested, and brought many potential investors to our door. The grant is very specific about what it will or won't pay for. It fleshed out Walter's shop and paid for materials, including special ordered/manufactured parts, instead of the make-do stuff Walter was using. What it will not pay for is legal/patent expenses. Those have run up to $250K so far. Though that has been for patenting the basic concepts of the engine, rather than the specific application DoD wants.
Phase I Option will pay for testing of the engine. Phase II will develop a fully ready prototype, as opposed to a working model, demonstrate it's abilities and provide full testing. At then end of Phase II, a report by DoD is generated for public consumption which will clearly demonstrate the viability of Walter's engine as well as the specific application. A big problem we have is that "everyone knows" how an internal combustion engine works, and that's not how Walter's engine works. And "no one has designed a good working Variable Compression engine". And no one has made an engine this efficient, and even the big manufacturers/researcher have come up with something this good, so how could some backwoods mechanic have done so. People scoff.
I believe the Phase II contract is for a full year, but we should be getting more interest as we get more proof and testing of the engine. I know Walter has always wanted to sell licenses to use the patent. The last change in technology was the Wankle engine. Those patent licenses were sold for $30 million each to 40 or 50 manufacturers. Taking inflation into account and a greater leap in technology, I think license sales of $2.5 billion would not be surprising.
I'd be dizzy with excitement with my 1% of that. And who knows, maybe it will really happen. The possibility is closer. TRAVELING BEAD PARTY!!!!
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