None of this has ever been suppressed. The Stirling cycle is taught in real thermo classes but, evidently, not in imaginary ones. We even had a Stirling engine in our thermo lab.
I will go out on a limb and bet that there is no university level text book printed in the last 60 years that has not covered a closed cycle heat engine (like the Stirling cycle).
Regardless, the problem is not whether or not it, "works". Everyone knows it "works". Stirling engines have been used throughout the world for hundreds of years and are in use today. The problem is with the specific power of closed cycle engines.
Just because you can turn a little flywheel on a table top does not mean it will scale up to produce megawatts of easily manageable power better than every other means of generating mechanical work.
So, in summary, no suppression, just the difficulties of reality.
--Outlaw.
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