Ricardo Engineering Consultants, or Ricardo as it is often more simply known, is a publicly listed company named after its founder Sir Harry Ricardo, that creates designs for specialist or advanced combustion engines used particularly in the automotive and aerospace industries. It is a specialist and does not mass-produce engines, although many of its designs are quietly incorporated into the production of well-known, high-volume brands.

Company

The company was one of several founded by Sir Harry Ricardo; it was incorporated on 30 June 1927 at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England. Its main facilities are now at:

• Shoreham-by-Sea (head office)
• Royal Leamington Spa
• Cambridge
• North America (Detroit Technology Campus, engineering and testing)
• Germany
• Czech Republic

Notable designs

• the Comet diesel engine with its IDI diesel combustion system. First used in AEC London Buses and the 1935 Citroen Rosalie passenger car, its pre-combustion system is still used in today's diesel engines and has been improved over the decades
• gas turbine Barostat fuel supply systems for jet engines, in conjunction with Sir Frank Whittle.
• the draft sensing three point linkage used by tractors. Ricardo's innovation was to automate it so that it is only operational when moving.
• investigations into the Stirling engine for fuel-efficiency - commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1978, it has scope for use in hybrid engines
• the Voyager's Teledyne Continental aircraft engine, modified to fly around the world non-stop without refuelling.
• direct fuel-injection systems for aircraft and automobile engines.
• transmissions and engines for motor sport and speed records, notably the consistently-successful Audi 24 Hours of Le Mans team and the JCB Dieselmax diesel land speed record holder and the DSG gearbox of the Bugatti Veyron.

External links

• Ricardo Engineering

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