Ralph Sarich

Ralph Tony Sarich (born 10 December 1938 in Baskerville, Western Australia) is an Australian automotive engineer, inventor and businessman best known for the orbital engine and the orbital combustion process. He trained as a fitter and turner and a trainee engineer with the Western Australian Government Railways, studying engineering part-time, then worked as a plant engineer and ran his own engineering and service business before turning to engine research. His orbital engine was first fired in 1972, and he founded the Orbital Engine Company to develop the staged combustion process that later became the orbital combustion process, a direct-injection approach built on the two-stroke concept. The process was licensed as intellectual property to car, marine and motorcycle makers and used in production engines to varying degrees, although the orbital engine hardware itself proved hard to cool and lubricate and never reached mass production. Sarich later became chairman of the private investment company Cape Bouvard Investments and was named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988.