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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 April 27, 2008Frank Thielert knows a lot about diesel engines, less about GA conditions of customer service, and not enough about managing a public company.
Now that Thielert Motoren GmbH goes through severe financial troubles, the natural questions are the future of its line of aero diesels, and how it affects the whole aero diesel industry as a whole.
Where did Frank Thielert go wrong? Our impression from messages received from the fleet managers, most of them stuck with Diamond DA40 and 42, is: If Thielert did deliver on customer service and spare parts, and if rigorous procedures were applied for preventive maintenance, the Thielert engine would be costly to maintain but would do the job. The users would impatiently wait for a new generation of similar engines where the bugs would have been weeded out. A frequent opinion in the US says: The in-line water-cooled geared engine derived from an automobile engine block was a flawed concept in the first place. Diamond Air does not think so: the Austro line it is developing in-house with Mercedes contribution looks very much like an improved Thielert, taking into account what Diamond learned, which is a lot. If Diamond is on the right track, it is a case for them acquiring Thielert: the Austro line could be manufactured by the Thielert facility. It would take retooling. If Cessna joins in with a long term contract for their needs, it would reduce delays in bringing the 172 and 206 diesel to market. For the same reason, there is an alternative case for Textron, who owns Cessna and Lycoming, to consider acquiring Thielert itself in context of a long term agreement with Diamond. What about Teledyne Continental? Not impossible. But we perceive Continental as less in need to jump on the diesel bandwagon now. They may be the one who decide to wait and develop their own line. Will the whole saga delay aero diesel progress? Certainly. But SMA, Wilksch and DeltaHawk are making progress, with different designs, aiming at different market segments; and meanwhile the world outside the US badly needs aero diesels now: This is also a message we read regularly from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America: 'Our problem is we are stuck with our fleet: Avgas is no more available.' Of course as always in aviation, all progresses are very slow. And the drama at Thielert may well be that the engine simply was certified too soon. The dramatic component in the Thielert saga is how its management handled the stock market. It imposes extremely dangerous short term conditions for a small firm handling an engineering-intensive component for which customer service is so extremely decentralized. One thing is for sure: 30 years from now, there will be many, many aero diesels between 100 and 500 HP flying in the world. To get there, everyone fasten your seatbelts. posted at 4:25 AM News of April 20, 2008What exactly is going on with Thielert?It seems that whatever the truth is, it has nothing to do with the viability of the aero diesel concept, nor, for the longer term, with the future of the Thielert Centurion engines. Before we do our own report, our subscribers may be interested in this link: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/Thielerts-Troubles-Criminal-Investigations-and-a-Cash-Crunch-04801/ posted at 11:43 PM News of April 14, 2008IndUS diesel WAM 120-Powered Plane Flies From Dallas On Three GPH!
The IndUS Diesel Thorpedo makes his public debut at Sun n Fun, April 13, 2008. We thought the idea of a Cessna 172 powered by Jet-A was a curious -- and cool -- notion. On Saturday, IndUS Aviation debuted the world first Light Sport Aircraft to be powered by a diesel engine. A company pilot flew the WAM 120-equipped Thorpedo from IndUS's headquarters in posted at 12:48 PM News of April 12, 2008Liquidity crisis, management change, financial restructuring at Thielert
The investors have also informed us that, subject to the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht issuing an exemption from the obligation to make a mandatory tender offer, they intend to help the Company with the implementation of a comprehensive restructuring concept. Inter alia, this would include a share capital increase in cash through the issuance of up to 21,192,130 new shares at a subscription price of EUR 1.15 per share, thereby raising up to EUR 24,370,949.50 of new equity for the Company. It is the intention of the investors, subject to certain conditions, to subscribe for an amount of up to EUR 20 mn. (equaling approx. 17,391,304 new shares). This share capital increase in cash is to cover the Company’s liquidity needs going forward which, according to the management board, will require funds of EUR 20-24 mn. to cover the period until the end of the first quarter of 2009 when the management board expects the Company to generate positive cash flows. To make the implementation of the aforementioned restructuring measures possible, the management board and the supervisory board today resolved to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting and to have it resolve on an ordinary share capital increase with subscription rights in cash through the issuance of up to 21,192,130 new shares at a subscription price of EUR 1.15 per share, thereby raising up to EUR 24,370,949.50 of new equity. In addition, the supervisory board has begun an active search for candidates to replace the present CEO and CFO, who do not oppose this. In particular, the present CEO Mr. Frank Thielert has agreed to continue to serve on the management board as COO once a new CEO has been appointed. As indicated in our ad-hoc-announcement of 6 March 2008, on 4 April 2008 the Company has lodged an appeal against the decision of the District Court of Hamburg declaring the annual financial statements of the Company for 2003, 2004, and 2005 to be void. ( DieselAir Comment: It is too early to discuss the future of Thielert, except to restate that developing and marketing a totally new aero-engine concept requires a very deep pocket which Frank Thielert did not have. However he has succeeded in becoming the industry leader at a time when the aero diesel market is obviously taking off, so we expect some kind of restructuring will solve present problems. posted at 10:51 AM |
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