Background

The founder of Wilksch Airmotive, Mark Wilksch, has a background in both aviation and engine development. Having worked in Australia with the RAAF on F111, F/A-18 and Orion aircraft as well as fitting out Kingairs for the Royal Flying Doctor service, he moved to the UK in 1990 to take up a position as Design Engineer with the Footwork-Arrows Formula 1 Team. He then headed up Cosworth’s aero engine study during 1992-3 which included work for Teledyne Continental on a "flat three" engine to replace the Continental O-200.

Subsequently, having founded Wilksch Airmotive, he secured UK Department of Trade and Industry "SMART" funding for a new diesel engine project in September 1994. In early 1995 Martin Long joined the project, also from Cosworth, bringing valuable production engineering experience.

In January 1996 the two cylinder WAM-80 ran for the first time. An installation was completed for a Piper J3 working closely with PFA Engineering and the first flight was achieved on 21 November 1997. Flight trials continued through to February 1998 with excellent results.

A commitment was made to develop the three cylinder WAM-120 for commercial production.

The WAM-120 first flew in a Europa aircraft in 1999.