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When will a diesel be available for my aircraft? |
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News, facts, and comments on the coming revolution for piston-engine aircraft.News of May 30, 2008The Thielert Saga and its consequences for the aero-diesel industry
Bruno Kuebler, Principal of a German law firm, is presently entrusted as Receiver to manage the Thielert assets. He is a professional and as such, he knows what he knows, and he knows what he does not know; but as he has no experience of the very small and heterogeneous world market of piston engined airplanes, he does not know what he does not know. Which is why he is presently scuttling Thielert to the point that the business will soon be impossible to sell, and will very probably not survive. Not knowing what one doesnt know is the curse of professional managers who, like Mr. Kuebler, believe in catch-all, generic management, with same tools and methods for all industries. It is for the same reason that every industry who has fallen in the hands of pure financiers has slowly but surely gone down the drain. The irony is that the German manufacturing industry remains the most competitive in the world precisely because German managers are well aware of the futility of generic management methods, and have learned that, on the contrary, what is good practice in one industry becomes bad practice in another. The market of aero diesels essentially consists in more than 800 Diamond airplanes, singles and twins, of course equipped with the 135 HP Thielert. Diamond Air is managed by an experienced, Austrian entrepreneur, Christian Dries, who enjoys an enormous advantage: He is playing with his own money; therefore he has been learning fast while being remarkably successful in the otherwise miserable industry which designs and manufactures piston-engined airplanes, an industry where successes have become the absolute exceptions among the lazaret of numerous defunct or severely ailing firms and short-lived start-ups. But too many of these Diamond planes are grounded for lack of spare parts. The ones who are flying are costing way too much in maintenance, especially now that Bruno Kuebler is charging exorbitant prices. All owners are wondering what their otherwise superb airplane will be worth next year. And Diamond has positioned itself as the diesel airplane specialist. Other diesel airplanes do exist and fly, with engines from SMA (France), DeltaHawk (US), Wilksch (UK). Of these three, only SMA presently offers, through a network of dealers, the Cessna 182 retrofitted with its 230HP engine, an airplane which is certified worldwide including in the By far the biggest market for piston-engined planes is the Christian Dries is doing commendable and costly efforts to bring to the market the Thielert substitute made by Austro Engines. ‘Despite Diamond's best efforts to improve the situation,’ the company's statement said, ‘Thielerts attitude towards product integrity and customer support and service were substandard even prior to the insolvency. The current situation is simply impossible. The customers will ultimately decide the long-term future of TAE, and in the absence of an economically viable product, and of customers who trust the company, any future viability may be questionable.’ Located in the same industrial complex south of AVWeb writes: ‘Austro will have to overcome several technical problems that have dogged the Thielert engines, chief among them is the requirement to inspect and/or replace the engine's gearbox at 300-hour intervals. Since it runs at the same RPM as the Thielert, the Austro has a reduction gearbox but the Hor Technologie-developed gear set is being initially fielded with an 1800-hour TBO. Further, unlike the Thielert, the Austro has no clutch, but uses a dynamic damper to insulate the prop and gear train from the diesel's sharp power pulses. The Centurion line also encountered cooling system faults that caused cracked cylinder heads. Fuel specifics for the Austro are said to be 20 percent better than the Centurion line, a claim that's consistent with the engine's performance in the Mercedes A-Class economy sedan, which delivers as much 56 MPH on the highway. The burning question that beached Diamond owners have is: when? Marcus Hergeth, the Austro managing director, told Flight Daily that first deliveries are planned for October of this year. It is not known what production levels are planned. If the Austro plans work out, they may complicate short-term efforts to revive Thielert Aircraft Engines. Because Diamond represents the majority of new engine and parts business for Thielert, investors may be reticent to recapitalize a company whose market is overhung by a major competitor who is also a customer. Diamond and Bruno Kuebler have engaged in a bitter war of words over how to restore engine and parts flow to Diamond customers. Last week, Kuebler published new parts prices that Diamond called ‘abusive’ (they certainly are, since the Thielert price list pre-bankruptcy was already prohibitive) and it announced that Thielert would no longer honor its warranty commitments. Meanwhile, more of Diamonds customers go AOG each day as engines come due for gearbox and engine replacements.’ Conclusion for the time being: The world of General Aviation needs diesel and must shift to Jetfuel. Diamond is doing what it takes to remain the leader in powers of less than 200HP for the time being, but at this very moment does not have a certified engine to propose. We can be sure they will soon. We can assume that the Thielert experience with a V8, 300-350HP engine will not survive. The SMA engine, which is an O engine of much lower power per liter (50HP/liter against 70-85 for the Mercedes derived engines), has no gear, is air-oil cooled, is STCd on the Cessna 182, and on which all reports are satisfactory, constitutes the wild card. Andre Teissier du Cros posted at 6:16 PM |
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