EPS looks for engine certification in 2017

“We’re pretty close,” said Michael Fuchs, who co-founded the Wisconsin company with EPS Vice President Steven Weinzierl.

“It’s been an exciting year for us,” Fuchs said at EAA AirVenture. The company announced in June that ground tests to measure propeller vibration with a variety of Hartzell propellers demonstrated that the Graflight 8 is capable of running both aluminum and composite propellers with various configurations without the need for additional vibration dampening.

The clean-sheet design was test flown in 2014 in a Cirrus SR22 flown by Dick Rutan. It can run on Jet-A, JP-8, or straight diesel, and EPS said the engine could be used not only in general aviation airplanes and small helicopters, but also in military drones, small boats, or troop carriers.

Fuchs said EPS recently received a fourth round of financing, and the company should be fully funded through the certification process, “so there is no fear we will not make it to the finish line,” he said.