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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 06, 2007The Cessna 206 Thielert V8 gets EASA certificationInstallation of the kerosene piston aircraft engine Centurion 4.0 in the Cessna 206 is now certified for Europe. On April 13, 2007, the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) granted Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH the supplemental type certificate (STC) for models U206F and TU206F, each with 300 HP as well as models U206G, TU206G, 206H and T206H each with 310 HP. Presentation flights with the Cessna 206 received a positive response all over Germany. "Quiet, simple, and above all a lot of power," was the unanimous response of the pilots who have already had an opportunity to fly the Cessna 206. Even during the press flight day in December 2006 on the occasion of the opening of the new Thielert plant in Altenburg/Thuringia, the conclusion was positive without exception. "By installing the V8 engine - conditional on the fuselage in the 310 HP or the 300 HP version - the conventional Cessna 206 almost becomes a new aircraft," says CEO Frank Thielert. In addition, the aircraft is convincing due to the good flight performance. Following performance data dor 206H with 310 HP and MTOW of 3,600 lbs: - Climb (sea level): 1130 ft/min - Climb to 10.000 ft: 9,2 min. - Cruise 70% @ 6.000 ft: 145 KTAS with 11.6 US gal/hr, 971 NM (1798 km) range - Take off distance (50 ft obstacle): 498 m = 1634 ft DieselAir remark: we are curious regarding two figures: Best economy fuel flow at best altitude, which we expect to be higher than 6,000 ft; fuel flow at best glide speed. posted by Deena at 7:06 PM Twinstar take-off crash divides Diamond and ThielertDiamond Aircraft Industries and Thielert Aircraft Engines are at loggerheads over the cause of a double engine failure involving a DA42 Twinstar during take-off in Germany last month. The incident, in Speyer, south-west Germany, is being probed by the Germany air accident investigation bureau, but the cause of the engine failure is known to be the effect of a transient drop in the electrical voltage to the two engine control units, Diamond confirms. The European Aviation Safety Agency has ordered the companies to find a swift solution, and Diamond's chief executive Christian Dries says his company is seeking EASA certification to install a small back-up battery for each engine's control unit. When the crew of the accident DA42 arrived at the aircraft (D-GOAL) they found it had a flat battery and started up the engines using an external power unit. This deviated from the published operating procedure, which only allows one engine to be started with an external power unit - the second has to be started using aircraft-generated power. Just after rotation, as the landing gear was retracted, the aircraft experienced simultaneous engine failures on both TAE Centurion 1.7 diesel engines, forcing the crew to make a belly landing in a field adjacent to the runway. Diamond says that retracting the gear placed a load on the electrical supply from the engine-driven alternators that caused a temporary voltage drop that could not be covered by the flat battery, and the accident has shown the engine control unit to be intolerant of transient electrical fluctuations. TAE says the problem is an airframe issue, adding that being forced to issue an airworthiness directive for the 1.7, which is set to power other aircraft types, would have a huge impact on its business. Diamond dismisses these claims and argues the control unit supplied by TAE should have been able to accept a 50 millisecond transient, but it started to reset after 1.7 milliseconds, and during the engine control unit reset the propeller system sensed the power loss and auto-feathered. Meanwhile, Diamond has issued a service information bulletin that clarifies standard operating procedures. Dries says the question remains: who is to pay for the fix? Blogs from Aero 2007 – Friedrichshafen 4/23/07 posted by Deena at 1:28 PM Diesel engines at Sun n Fun 2007: The time is for when, no more for if.At Sun n Fun this year, one could visit Diamond Air and see the DA 42; Superior engines and see the Centurion V8; SMA and discuss progress of various STCs other than the 182; Epic Aviation and hear their latest proposals for the 172 Thielert conversion; DeltaHawk and hear that they are doing well indeed thanks to the DoD Drone market using their 2-stroke 4-cyl. Diesel. Answering one accusation from a subscriber, i. e. that DieselAir seems to favor European diesel firms against good old US engineering, will be the occasion for a general discussion of competition on the US market today. Competition in aero diesels is dominated for the time being by Thielert (over 400 engines flying now) with their Centurion family entrusted to their recent acquisition Superior Engines. No, once again, the Thielert engines are not automobile engines converted to aircraft use. Their 4 cylinder 135 HP uses an engine block from the Mercedes-Benz production, that’s all. Their V8 310-350 HP has lost any commonality with automobile. Thielert chose the liquid cooled, in-line, geared engine against the direct drive, air cooled, opposite cylinders engine. In 1918, same wise, a Liberty engine and a Gnome rotary engine; or, in 1940 a Rolls Royce Merlin engine and a Wright Cyclone engine; illustrated the same difference in choices. The pros and the cons are as old as aviation. The Thielert is OEM on the Diamond DA42 and, in Europe, on the Diamond DA 40 and the Robin DR400 (France). Epic Aviation offers conversions on 172s now. Cirrus just announced that the SR22 is available now with the Thielert V8 as OEM. SMA is second and far behind in terms of numbers of engine actually flying in the world (around 40-45). The SMA is a 230 HP, 4 cylinder O engine looking like a smaller O-320 surrounded by huge heat exchangers. It is oil and air cooled. The propeller is on the crankshaft, following the second alternative. It has much less moving parts than a Thielert. It is STCd on the 182, and will be at the end of the year OEM equipment on the Maule MX9. Maule has a backlog of 9 orders and has 5 diesel planes in the shop. Tule River Aero on the West Coast (www.tuleriveraero.com) and FlyJetA (www.flyjeta.com) on the East Coast are offering conversions. DACI in Atlanta (http://www.dieselairplanes.com) is taking orders for fully converted and refurbished 182 SMAs. DeltaHawk is third, but the one to watch because, if I am well informed, thanks to the DoD market they are cash flow positive. SMA is certainly not. Thielert is too, but with a huge investment to amortize. The DeltaHawk is a 160 HP 2-stroke V4, and has the least moving parts of the three competing designs. It is not yet certified and even less STCd. Who is going to win? In my opinion, all of them; and if anyone fails it will be bad news for the others because it will reflect on the diesel concept which is still shaky in US pilots minds. Here is why. Any US pilot dislikes the Thielert design because it is geared. Old argument: If the prop hits something hard, the one tooth in the gear transmission takes the shock hard enough to risk damaging the engine. Thielert answers: Our engine combines a vibration dampener plus a friction clutch limiting maximal torque, so this cannot happen. Correct. However, gear plus dampener plus clutch adds weight. To what extent? My impression is that it handicaps a smaller 4 cylinder, but the handicap becomes negligible on a larger V8 which is smoother and smaller per HP in the first place. I expect the 172 Thielert to be accepted by flight academies, and the V8 to penetrate first the market of twin conversions: Cessna 400 series to begin with. Thielert Centurion should remain the leader. The SMA design looks more familiar and your basic US pilot likes it. It is the only 230HP fully certified and STCd on one airplane model which is widespread in the US: The 182. It will take some time before Thielert has something to offer in that power, during which SMA can carve a niche, to be followed with the future 270HP and 300HP of their basic design. There will be competition with Thielert, but not head-on. DeltaHawk is a wild card. I think that 2-stroke diesel is at least the future for smaller single engines and for experimentals in the 120-200 HP range because of its weight advantage. It remains to be seen that its TBO will be comparable to 4-stroke. Then, it may well end up demonstrating an advantage in operating cost and in weight per HP. And now, why is the arena dominated by foreign firms and what are Continental and Lycoming doing, considering that as market leaders they had the advantage and the vocation to introduce aerodiesel first? American engineering is excellent, especially in General Aviation where the US has the advantage of the biggest and most diversified industry in the world. Continental and Lycoming could have hired the right resources to put on time the best diesel on the market. They didn’t because of one factor: Through their publicly traded parent corporations, conglomerates Teledyne and Textron, they are governed by stock-optionism, the most dangerous disease threatening free enterprise today. To maintain stock price as high as possible right now, the only strategy is treating these two old, mature, market dominant firms as cash cows. Keep fixed costs low (research is fixed costs.) Farm out manufacturing (manufacturing is fixed costs). Defend existing designs against any new design (defending old products doesn’t cost much and is low risk.) Until DeltaHawk or even SMA or Thielert have made visible inroads that begins threatening the cash cow. Then, acquire one of them and amortize goodwill. Meanwhile, think about this: With stock-optionism, Curtiss-Wright (now gone), Lockheed, Boeing, Douglas (now Boeing), McDonnell (now Boeing), Northrop (now Grumman), Sikorsky and other great names would never have been born… For the same reason, it had to be Cirrus, a new venture, and Diamond, a foreign firm that introduced the new generation of composite fixed-gear airplanes. Cessna could not do it, and yet they have the resources. Andre Teissier-duCros posted by Deena at 12:28 PM From Germany to East Africa in a 172 ThielertOn Easter Monday, April 09, 2007, private pilot Hartmut Hofmann took off on an aid mission to East Africa in a Cessna 172 equipped with a Centurion kerosene piston aircraft engine from Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH. Hofmann is to assist two social projects in East Africa. One of them, attended by the children's aid organisation "Kindernothilfe", based in Duisburg, improves the situation of former child soldiers; the second is an AIDS awareness project aimed at fishing villages on Lake Victoria. The HIV/AIDS infection rate in the region is estimated to be as high as 80 percent. On April 04, 2007, Japser M. Wolffson, Head of Sales & Service at Thielert, presented a cheque to pilot Hartmut Hofmann in support of his work with the aid projects. The company is thus following up its commitment to last year's "World Flight for Hearing", that demonstrated what hearing-impaired people can achieve with the help of technical aid, by supporting additional social projects. Thanks to the efficient kerosene engine, Hofmann and his two co-pilots are hoping to slash fuel consumption during their flight over Italy, Greece, Egypt and Sudan to less than ten litres per 100 kilometres (23 statute miles per gallon). That would represent double the cruising range of conventional avgas engines. In addition, the problem of fuel supply is significantly simplified, as Centurion engines are not affected by the scarcity of avgas but can instead be run on kerosene, which is available worldwide. The flying aid mission will be shown on an "almost-live" webcast on www.dieselfly.dolsys.com. Plus, the aid mission will be documented in a photo presentation at the international "Diesel Fly In 2007" in Breitscheid. For more information visit www.dieselfly.de and www.centurion.aero April 05, 2007 posted by Deena at 11:05 AM Niger, Africa: Roger Krenzin on the SIM Diesel Cessna 182'You want to put jet fuel in that little airplane?' the air traffic controller at Ryan Field in Tucson, Arizona, asked incredulously when I requested taxi instructions to the nearest FBO that had jet fuel. Kevin Rideout and I were flying a Cessna 182Q equipped with the French 230 hp SMA diesel engine conversion, so my answer was a resounding yes! Long-time SIM pilot Jim Rendel had asked me to help Kevin, SIM pilot in Niger, Africa, ferry the aircraft from Porterville, California, to JAARS in early January 2007. It would be there several months undergoing modifications before proceeding to Africa in the spring. After a day and a half of ground school in California and a basic flight checkout, Kevin and I crossed the U.S. in 17.7 flight hours. We experienced true airspeeds of 145 knots at 9,000' pressure altitude, ground speeds of over 170 knots, and 10.5 gallons per hour fuel burn. A warning light en route had us switching the throttle to a manual backup mode, followed by a precautionary landing in Chanute, Kansas. We then had to wait there until a technician from the factory arrived with a replacement engine control unit. Fortunately, the remainder of the flight went smoothly. We at JAARS are privileged to help SIM with their venture into this new technology, and we will be watching closely as they put the airplane into service. Pray with them for wisdom and success in the implementation of this aircraft in their program in Africa. Questions answered by Roger: Q. Why would SIM want such a small plane? A. Avgas in Niger costs over $16 a gallon, whereas Jet A is just $6. Until higher horsepower diesel conversions in larger aircraft are available, the best option for SIM at this time was the Cessna 182. In a year and a half of service, SIM believes they will recover the conversion ex¬pense in fuel savings. Q. What STCs are there for this conversion? A. The European STC was obtained in September 2003. Approximately 40 aircraft with the conversion are flying in Europe and Africa. The FAA STC certification came in July 2006. The plane purchased by SIM, N5318N, was only the second with FAA certification, the first being the prototype. The conversion is done by Tule River Aero-Industries, Porterville, CA. The SIM aircraft is the first diesel in mission aviation. Q. What are the pros of this aircraft? A. Reduced fuel consumption: 10.5 gallons per hour at full throttle at 9,500 feet compared to 12 gph at 65% power with the original engine; higher TBO: 2,000 hours now, and they are hoping for 3,000 hours in the future; and the ability to maintain over 200 horsepower to 10,000 feet turbo¬charged. Q. What are the cons of the diesel conversion? A. A higher empty weight, thus a reduced useful load; the center of gravity is further forward; Jet A weighs 6.84 pounds per gallon instead of 6 pounds per gallon for avgas, thus some of the advantage of the reduced fuel burn is offset by the higher weight of the fuel; some mounting bracket failures for the intercooler in the engine compartment, which we suspect are due to insufficient bracket thickness with high vibration in certain conditions, particularly at initial startup when cold. by Roger Krenzin, JAARS pilot and mechanic. The ConRod, February 2007 posted by Deena at 10:35 AM Precisions on FAA STC for 172 Thielert...On March 12, Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH received the official certification document from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), expanding the sales potential for modern kerosene piston aircraft engines in the US market. The installation of the Centurion 2.0 in the Cessna 172, from American as well as French production (under the Reims name), has been certified in Europe since the fall of 2006. The FAA STC allows installation of Centurion 2.0 diesel powerplants in the Cessna production series 172 F to S, and F 172 F to P. posted by Deena at 9:52 AM |
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