Ralph Tony Sarich is a Western Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n multi millionaire businessman and qualified engineer of Croatian

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 descent—his parents came to Australia in 1930 from the Šibenik

Šibenik

Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...

 area. He was responsible for developing the Orbital Engine

Orbital engine

The Sarich orbital engine is a type of internal combustion engine, featuring rotary rather than reciprocating motion of its internal parts. It differs from the conceptually similar Wankel engine by using a shaped rotor that rolls around the interior of the engine, rather than having a trilobular...

 in 1972. He also developed the orbital combustion process engine, based on a re-designed two stroke engine

Two-stroke cycle

A two-stroke engine is an internal combustion engine that completes the process cycle in one revolution of the crankshaft...

 using direct gasoline injection.

The orbital engine concept was tested over three decades, attracting considerable interest and investment, with political support and considerable public funding, but ultimately proved to be a failure.

Key components of the Sarich engine couldn't be cooled. And others couldn't be readily lubricated. It was susceptible to overheating, and the invention was eventually deemed too impractical. By 2004, the Orbital Engine Company had accumulated losses of $480-million but Sarich had been fortunate enough to get out early. He sold his shares and did what every sensible millionaire does, he bought property in Perth's central business district.

He was rated one of Australia's richest people in 2007 with a personal fortune of A$800,000,000.

Sarich gained a number of awards, including Australian Inventor of the Year 1972; Sir Lawrence Hartnett Inventors Award 1972; Churchill Medal, Society of Engineers

Society of Engineers UK

The Society of Engineers was a learned society that was integrated with the Institution of Incorporated Engineers in 2005, with both societies later beingincorporated into the Institution of Engineering and Technology....

1987 and Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Award 1991. He was replaced as CEO of Orbital Engine corporation by Kim Schlunke.