I've been fascinated by axial piston engines (ie. engines with cylinders parallel to the crankshaft) for a long time. However I have never been entirely happy with suggested designs (most of the ones I have seen tend to add back in much of the complexity they claim to be removing compared to a conventional crankshaft.As it stands, this is certainly *not* a practical design (I hope to find the time to improve it - for starters, I would go to blowing into a plenum chamber rather than the crankcase, fuel injection and inlet valves).