Professor Antoni K. Oppenheim provided the spark!

🔎 The Visionary
The visionary behind the project was Professor Antoni K. Oppenheim, who had long argued for replacing the Diesel/Otto cycle. His guidance, rooted in decades of combustion research, shaped the project until his passing.
🌏The Implementer
In 1991, Jim Duncalf, former lecturer for the Illinois Department of Energy and then owner of an engineering company in Silicon Valley, discovered an article about the founder of Silicon Valley, Sherman Fairchild.  It contained the history of the 1927 Fairchild Camenz Engine, a cam‑centered radial engine that was simpler, more robust and more thermally efficient than any existing engine.  But it had one important weakness: the poor design of the hand-shaped cam caused severe torsional vibration—too much for the wood‑and‑fabric aircraft of the day; the design was abandoned.  
Ironically, in 1959, the same Sherman Fairchild was behind the development of the first silicon integrated circuits, another innovative technology which eventually led the way to Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machining (slide #3), which was finally able to produce precision cam shapes.  All that was needed was a design for such an engine and the money to commercialize it. Duncalf realized the fatal flaw of the radial cam engine could now be solved—and with encouragement from his friend Professor Oppenheim, he set out to build a team to design and build such an engine. 
⚙️ Building Momentum
To refine the engine’s layout, Duncalf consulted Smokey Yunick, the legendary mechanic. By 2001, Duncalf designed and built two spatial prototypes of the radial cam’s mechanical components.  A few months later, Mark Beierle of Earthstar Aircraft became the Rad Cam's first licensee, and with creative input from Duncalf and Oppenheim, they developed and tested three generations of running prototypes—culminating in a production version that flew successfully.
In 2006, two years before Tesla’s first electric Lotus was in production, Duncalf approached co‑founder Martin Eberhard about using the Rad Cam as a range extender. The offer was rejected due to government pressure, but the vision endured.  Government subsidies for EVs eventually grew into billions of USD, but the EVs had to be plugged into an electric utility to get special treatment from many subsidies. US Government pressure stalled further development.  
🌏 A New Chapter in Vietnam
Momentum returned in 2012 when Vietnamese entrepreneur and the most educated person ever to attend MIT, Tue Nguyen offered to partner and fund Rad Cam's further development, provided the project was moved to Vietnam. After 14 months of efforts, the firm was not capable of producing parts to the needed tolerance; however, his involvement had kept the project alive.  
Encouragement soon came from young engineer and co-inventor Phạm Duy Tùng, who convinced Duncalf to keep the project in Vietnam. Shortly afterward, Professor Huỳnh Thanh Công joined, offering expertise in fuel injection and combustion and inspiring the team to persist.
🚀 Ready for the Future
After years of redesigns, rebuilds, material changes, and—most recently—AI‑assisted refinements, the Rad Cam engine concept is now ready for a manufacturer to license it.  It is a proven concept that is compact, efficient, and modular; In every way, the Rad Cam outperforms conventional 4‑stroke engines.