Richard Lamb wrote:

snip

Like it or not, (and FAA blessings aside) the aircraft engines we love
to hate
(or hate to love?)
evolved to fill that particular niche - and do it pretty well - all
things considered.

That's just it. They have not evolved. They are like the coelecanth,
which lives, but only in an isolated world.

I have on my wall a picture of an early Bonanza with a woman standing
in the door. Most people do not recognize her, even though she is
perhaps the most famous woman in the world, even 43+ years after her
death. The point is if you went to A&P school when that picture was
taken, or when she died 15 years later, you could go out to the Beech
plant and see a A36 Bonanza and be essentially qualified to work on
every system. The engine would be almost identical except slightly
bigger. The ignition system is the same heavy high tension magnetoes,
as used on tractors and other farm equipment. The fuel injection
replaces the carburetor, biut it's the same old Hilborn style if they
are using Continentals. Lycs have the RSA system which was not invented
in 1946 but pretty well known in '62 if I recall correctly.

Can you imagine a young car mechanic of 1945 shown a 2005 automobile?

The coelecanth, a good name for the museum piece free air cooled split
case bolt-on-cylinder LyCon.