Re-Inventing the Wheel
Rock and Roll
 Along with the discoveries of fire, pointy sticks and standing on hind legs, our prehistoric ancestors figured out that when it was time to rearrange the furniture, rolling rocks around was a lot easier than dragging them, and so the wheel was invented.
 Through the 20th century, since the 1903 Wright Brothers Flyer, piston aircraft engines were constructed with the surfaces of flat cast iron tappets sliding directly against metal cam lobes, creating some of the same problems that our cave-dwelling forbearers answered with the wheel.
 Fast forward to the 21st century. Lycoming Engines has combined the tried and true concept of the wheel with modern technology and durable, wear-resistant space age materials to introduce general aviation’s only line of production engines with FAA-certified, precisely machined, fully-integrated roller tappets. This design is available on most Lycoming engine models.
Of course, our simple wheel analogy doesn’t approach the complex physics behind Lycoming’s innovation, but nearly three years in service and more than 3,000,000 reliable operating hours speak volumes.
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