I found this interesting so I though to share. Perhaps there are some "soup up" ideas transferable to civilian Wankels.

Iran has been known to use Wankel engines in its drones.
The Shahed 131, an Iranian-made drone, is powered by a Wankel engine model Shahed-783/7881.
This drone came to prominence during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Shahed-131 is powered by the Serat-1 Wankel engine, which is a copy of the Beijing Micropilot UAV Control System Ltd MDR-208 Wankel engine.
Additionally, Iran has also reverse-engineered a British AR-731 Wankel engine for UAVs.
Another engine, the MDR-200, is an apparent copy of the AR-741 Wankel engine manufactured by the UK-based company UAV Engines Ltd; it is used in the smaller Shahed-131 system.
It’s important to note that Iran’s use of these engines in its drones is part of a broader strategy to develop and deploy drones, dating back to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. This effort was driven partly by the country’s lack of access to high-end western technology that would enable it to purchase, develop, and maintain a sophisticated air force.

 

Makes sense. Wankels make great UAV engines. There was a US Army study & paper I read a long time ago that goes pretty deep on pros and cons for such applications. Especially if the drone is on a one way trip and you need thousands of them in a hurry, having only 2 moving parts is never bad.

 

Makes sense, engine only needs to last for one flight ....

 

They DO!

A long *** time ago I was hunting parts from a JDM RX8 which were only accepted in local collections.
I ended up in sort of farm corner taking part out and having a conversation with the seller,
He said "l JDM market ECU don't have any immobiliser and no need for crazy hacking to make them work, as he uses the engine for making drones "
We had a kinda long conversation about the matter and even he linked me website which I am not willing to share.

long story short the Wankel engines have very sufficient fuel consumption under constant load/speed.
Hence they are used in new-gen as range extender.

 

I wondered about this. The one video I saw during the “attack” sounded like a rotary or a two stroke. The info I found showed a pirated German flat four, but this sounds more like what I heard. Especially since they likely put up a lot of older units for this particular sortie. Thanks for posting.

 

I'd love to see the size of drone he makes with a 300lbs 2-rotor engine..

 

There are several Shahed models, with different engine options. They're usually generator/industrial engines under a liter. You only need 40-50 hp for drones that size.

Ukrainians call them "mopeds" because of the 2 stroke sound.

 

Wow I've fallen into a rabbit hole of Wankel ideas for projects. I had no idea that the efficiency and light weight of a 1-rotor Wankel could be used for...transportation.

This is fascinating.

 

Atkins makes a single rotor engine.


https://www.atkinsrotary.com/one-rotor-engine.html

 

they’re not Mazda based

and I’ll see and raise you …

https://www.billetrotary.com.au/prod...or-short-block
.

 

UK based Rotron has also been making wankel engine UAVs.
https://rotronpower.com/engines/

 

if Wankel engines are light and cheap so it is very possible that they use it in their drones

 

That's the reason I think why they are using Wankel engines. Not because of "oh the poor reliability doesn't matter LOL" thing, but because of the ease and low cost associated with Wankel engines when you don't need the best tolerances to meet emission standards.

 

Makes sense. I have a few RC friends and their helicopter models all use a single rotor engine. The biggest one is an Sikorski H-3 (forget the scale size) with a main rotor blade diameter is 9 feet across, and it scoots.