Sonex Research, Inc. (“Sonex” or the “Company”), a small business located in Annapolis, Maryland, is developing and commercializing a patented proprietary technology, known as the Sonex Combustion System (SCS), which improves the combustion of fuel in internal combustion engines.  The SCS achieves in-cylinder control of ignition and combustion through chemical/turbulent enhancement using patented combustion chamber designs.  The SCS combustion chamber is defined by embodiments located in the piston in four-stroke direct injected engines and in the cylinder head in two-stroke spark-ignited (SI) engines.  SCS designs reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and permit adapted gasoline engines to run on safer diesel-type, kerosene-based, “heavy fuels” in military and commercial applications requiring lightweight engines and safe handling/storage of fuel, such as in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).  The Company’s business objective is to execute broad agreements for industrial production of SCS components under license from Sonex. 

The SCS method for four-stroke engines is based on unthrottled air induction, direct fuel injection, and a modest compression ratio of 12.5:1.  The patented SCS piston design produces, retains, and expels chemical auto-ignition aids to cause controlled compression ignition after top-dead-center of the compression stroke in response to timed direct injection of the fuel.  Significantly, all of the fuel is delivered to the piston bowl and mixed with the air during the latter portion of the compression stroke.  Ignition occurs simultaneously at a high rate throughout the combustion volume after completion of injection.  This form of the SCS, known as Sonex Controlled Auto Ignition (SCAI), operates over the full range of rpm and loads.  The multi-fuel SCAI operates at reduced peak cylinder pressure to enable lightweight engine design.  The SCAI, which is considered a lean-burn combustion process, also has significant potential for commercial application in the automotive market for gasoline direct injected (GDI) engines to cost effectively improve fuel mileage 25% to 30%.  Sonex is seeking partners and other funding arrangements to support an SCAI-GDI program to produce compelling SCAI combustion process engine data for marketing to the automobile industry.  Another form of the SCS, known as the Low Soot Diesel Design (LSDD), enables soot and oxides of nitrogen (NO_x) reductions in standard DI diesel engines at compression ratios greater than 16:1.

In the case of two-stroke SI engines, Sonex has established a viable heavy fuel engine (HFE) technology baseline by applying its patented SCS combustion chamber design and proprietary starting system to the conversion of single and multi-cylinder, lightweight, gasoline engines for use in military applications such as UAVs to start reliably, even in cold temperatures.  SCS embodiments in the cylinder head provide control of fuel vaporization late in the compression stroke such that a portion of the heavy fuel is then vaporized near the spark plug.  As the combustion event progresses it causes the fuel to fully vaporize and combust.  The SCS heavy fuel conversion maintains the gasoline engine’s stock carburetion or fuel injection system, intake and exhaust systems, spark ignition system, and compression ratio.  SCS HFEs^TM running on heavy fuels JP-5, JP-8 and D-2 diesel (with lubricant additive) retain the ignition precision of the SI process and knock-free combustion.  Compared to operation on gasoline, these HFEs achieve equal to or reduced fuel consumption (18%-28% less at cruise rpm) and produce no visible smoke.

In November 2006 Sonex signed an exclusive license agreement with Insitu, Inc. (www.insitu.com), a pioneer developer of long-range, unmanned, autonomous aircraft for military and commercial activities, for the SCS HFE^TM technology applicable to UAVs with HFEs that are twenty horsepower or less.   Insitu plans to be the first to market with an HFE in the Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System class vehicle in 2008.  Sonex is free to license its HFE technology for use in UAVs using engines exceeding 20 hp, or on any size HFE for non-UAV use such as in all-terrain vehicles, pumps, outboard engines, small watercraft, and generator sets. 

The Sonex engineering and technological team is headed by the Company’s Founder, Dr. Andrew A. Pouring, a former Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy.  Dr. Pouring is a full-time consultant serving as the Company’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Chief Technology Officer.  In addition the Company has five full-time employees, consisting of its Chief Financial Officer and Secretary George E. Ponticas, one engineer and three skilled technicians, and it engages the part-time services of Michael I. Keller, a consultant who serves as Director of Business Development and Program Manager. 

The Company's approximately 6,000 square foot facility is equipped with emissions test equipment, advanced combustion analyzers and several engine dynamometers rated from 40 hp to 500 hp.  Substantial equipment is dedicated to the development and testing of small engines for UAVs, including dynamometers, static propeller thrust and torque test stands, air intake/exhaust system to support running engines, and an environmental chamber that allows testing of small engines at temperatures from -20 deg. C to 55 deg. C with air velocities of 50 knots.  Sonex small engine testing capabilities are available to customers desiring engineering and testing services, including evaluating and trouble shooting gasoline engines powering UAVs and assessing the potential for converting such engine to SCS HFEs.

The Company became subject to the periodic reporting requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) upon making an initial public offering in 1985.  In recent years its Common Stock traded in the over-the-counter market and was quoted on the Pink Sheets Electronic Quotation Service under the symbol “SONX”.  The Company, however, became delinquent in its annual and quarterly SEC reporting requirements primarily as a result of the effects of a failed restructuring in 2004.  In January 2007 the SEC notified Sonex that the registration of its stock would be subject to revocation if all required reports were not filed within 15 days of the date of the letter.  In February 2007 the Company submitted an Offer of Settlement (the “Offer”) to the SEC in anticipation of the proceedings that would have been instituted against Sonex by the SEC.  The Company agreed to enter into a Consent Order with the SEC pursuant to which the registration of its stock would be revoked.  On July 13, 2007, the SEC issued its order revoking the registration of the Company’s stock; as a result, the Company’s stock no longer trades publicly.

Business relationship with Insitu

Since 2005 the Company has worked on an application of the SCS HFE^TM technology with Insitu, Inc. of Bingen, Washington (website: www.insitu.com), a pioneer developer of long-range, unmanned, autonomous aircraft for military and commercial activities.  Insitu has developed the long endurance, low cost ScanEagle® UAV in partnership with The Boeing Company.  (ScanEagle® is a registered trademark of Boeing.)  As announced in July 2008, Boeing will acquire Insitu, which will operate as an independent subsidiary of Boeing.

ScanEagle is being used to provide services for the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force and Australian Defence Forces.  ScanEagle has logged more than 80,000 hours of flight time since it was first deployed with the Marines in 2004 and with the Navy in 2005, including more than 1,000 shipboard launch-recovery cycles from Navy ships.

Sonex signed an exclusive license agreement with Insitu in November 2006 for the SCS HFE technology applicable to UAVs with HFEs that are twenty horsepower or less.   Sonex is free to license its HFE technology for use in UAVs using engines exceeding 20 hp, or on any size HFE for non-UAV use such as in ATVs (all-terrain vehicles), pumps, outboard engines, small watercraft, and generator sets.

In April 2008 Insitu announced that it had flown HFE equipped ScanEagles in Iraq in a demonstration conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Navy in a real-world environment.  The announcement stated that the HFE was developed by Insitu in partnership with Boeing and Sonex.  As reported on its website, Insitu plans to be the first to market with an HFE in the Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System class vehicle in 2008.  Insitu also announced the introduction of its new, larger UAV known as the Integrator^TM.  In an interview published in the August 20, 2007 print edition of Defense News, also available on Insitu’s website, Insitu President and CEO Steven Sliwa stated that the Integrator will start out with a gasoline engine and then move to heavy fuel using the SCS HFE technology.

Business relationship with Limbach

Sonex is the exclusive U.S. and Canadian distributor for two-stroke gasoline engines manufactured by Limbach Flugmotoren, GmbH & Co. KG of Konigswinter-Sassenberg, Germany (website: www.limflug.de).  Limbach produces high quality, lightweight, and reliable two- and four-stroke gasoline engines used in UAVs, powered gliders and very light aircraft.  Sonex and Limbach are seeking funding for development and qualification of Limbach SCS HFEs which are expected to have significantly lower fuel consumption than their gasoline fueled counterparts.

Portions of this Website contain information in the form of "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995 (the "Act").  Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions by management with respect to, among other things, trends affecting the Company's financial condition or results of operations and the impact of competition. Words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "estimates", variations of such words, and similar expressions are intended to identify such statements that include, but are not limited to, projections of revenues, earnings, cash flows and contract awards.  Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of the Company.  In order to obtain the benefits of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act for any such forward-looking statements, the Company cautions readers about significant factors which, among other things, have in some cases affected the Company's actual results and are in the future likely to affect the Company's actual results and cause them to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements.