Abstract

In 1994 I was challenged. I was hired to design the inline fuel injection pump of a novel two-stroke turbocharged diesel engine which was being designed from scratch to provide thrust for a long-range Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). For the purpose of this discussion, the list of engineering specifications that I received may be condensed in just this sentence: introduce the required fuel in each condition of operation with an inline system as versatile, reliable, fast and cheap as possible. Then, I studied the available options: inline mechanical injection pumps and common-rail systems. Finally, I selected the common-rail; not because it was by that time considered the best system on the automotive sector, but because I considered it was the one that, as the inexperienced engineer that I was, I could design. Here, design meant the long process that begins with selecting a concept and ends by making a first operative prototype.