Aircraft Diesel Manufacturers

The last couple of years development in aircraft engines has been more or less concentrating on diesel engines. We have seen one off installations to fully developed engine production lines. A number of companies are active on this market primarily due to major concern of long term availability and the relative high price of AVgas (Europe).

More and more diesel engines will become available for the General Aviation market. As AVgas is becoming a thing of the past we need those engines.

Engine Manufacturers

Some companies designing and selling aircraft diesel engines are:

Austro AE300 Diesel Engine

• Austro Engine GmbH, AE 300 2.0 170 hp 560 Nm 4 stroke 2000 hr TBO. Based on a diesel car engine and developed with Diamond Aircraft for use in DA-40, DA-42 and DA-50 aircraft, launched mid 2008, flying since 2007 and can be retrofitted in existing DA-40 and DA-42 replacing the TAE engines. The AE 300 is an inline four cylinder, 2.0-liter piston engine which uses Jet A1 or diesel fuel to produce 170 hp (127 kW).
  The engine is liquid cooled, with a double overhead camshaft (DOHC). Every cylinder has four valves which are actuated by the cam follower. All engine components are controlled by an EEC system. Equipped with an electrical starter, an alternator, a water pump, an oil pump, a coolant system, an intercooler and an oil cooler.
  The propeller is driven by a directly integrated gearbox with an integral torsional vibration damper. US FAA Approved. This engine delivers more power on LESS fuel compared to a Thielert/Centurion engine.
• AVWEB March 2011: "Austro Engine GmbH, best known for its work supplying powerplants for Diamond airplanes, announced this week it plans to develop a new 280-hp six-cylinder diesel engine for the general aviation market. Austro will work in partnership with Steyr Motors to develop the engine, based on the Steyr Monoblock Motor M1. That engine features an integral crankcase and cylinder head that has proven robust in marine and special-vehicle applications around the world, according to the company.The new engine is intended to power two Diamond aircraft now in the works: the DA50 Magnum, a single-engine five-seat airplane, and the twin-engine Future Small Aircraft (FSA) intended for personal and utility applications."

• Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH Centurion Aircraft Engines AG, Centurion 1.7 (135 hp) and 2.0 (135 hp and 155 hp, S model) and Centurion 4.0 (350 hp) 4 stroke, used mainly in Diamond Aircraft DA-40/42 and the US army in their drones. This engine is quite expensive, high maintenance and has very high operating cost due to design shortcuts, low TBO of the gearbox (300h and upgrade to 600h available) and shortcut management decisions. Thielert Engine Owners must visit the website of the "The Thielert Engine Owners Group".
• Centurion Aircraft Engines received the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the installation of the Centurion 2.0s kerosene piston aircraft engine with 155 hp in the Cessna 172. On May 21, 2010, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued the STC. Centurion is the firm which took over the insolvent Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH a year ago. This means that the Cessna models 172 F to S are now certified. Basically you want an Austro.

• Deltahawk, 160 hp, 180 hp and 200 hp, 2 stroke piston ported models, turbo and supercharged, flying and working together with LoPresti Speed Merchants for a diesel powered Cirrus SR20, STC expected in 2010. Lambert Aircraft (Wevelgem, Belgium) develops an engine installation for their Mission 212 four seat aircraft and expects it to be flying early 2012.
• Wilksch Airmotive, 120 hp 312 Nm 0,49 lb/hp/hr, 3 cylinder 2 stroke, turbo and supercharged, (mass 100 kg) and a 160 hp 4 cylinder (mass 115 kg), 120 hp model flying (WAM-120 wide bore 140 hp available) and 160 hp model almost ready. Liberty Aerospace will use a Wilksch Diesel in their XL2 aircraft. A number of engines are flying and development is steady but slow.
• FairDiesel Limited UK, "They have combined the concepts of barrel and opposed piston engines and applied them to produce an exceptionally well-balanced lightweight diesel engine for a wide range of applications." This design looks very promising, FD is looking for investors.
• Diesel Air Limited, DAIR-100, 90 hp, 2 cylinder 4 pistons 2 stroke opposed based on JUMO design, model flying in airship, acquired by Howells Aero Engines Limited UK. No news since a couple of years.
• Powerplant Developments Limited, Gemini-100, 100 hp 285 Nm 0,39 lb/hp/hr dry mass 71 kg, 3 cylinder 6 pistons 2 stroke opposed based on JUMO design, 125 hp turbocharged expected end of 2008. No news of late.

• Teledyne Continental Motors indicated (end of 2009) that they are busy developing "diesel technology with licenses and hardware from an outside source" with more info to come early 2010 (Mark Wilksch comes to mind here). May 2010: TCM announced that they are working together with French SMA to introduce the SR305 in the US market. Testing is underway in a Cessna 182. Dec 2010: TCM has been sold to Technify Motors, a subsidiary of AVIC International, a Chinese-based holding company with diverse business interests in the aerospace sector.
• SMA Safran Group, the SR305-230 engine, 230 hp air cooled 4 cylinder, certified and STC available for retrofit.

• Zoche, radial diesel 2 stroke, been designing for years (>15), nothing in production.
• Raptor Turbo Diesel Vulcan Aircraft Engines, 105 hp 4 stroke 4 cylinder diesel with FADEC, dry mass is 81 kg. No news since 2007.
• ECO Motors, EM 80 and EM 100 hp 4 stroke 4 cylinder diesel with FADEC based on a car engine, dry mass is around 98 kg. No news since 2008.
• Costruzioni Motori Diesel of Atella, Italy has a 6 cylinder horizontally opposed, direct drive engine of 5.56 liter (GF56). Power is 310 hp at 2400 RPM with a 2-stroke diesel uniflow cycle with a weight of 220 kg. No news since then.
• BRD SrL of Italy A 4 or 6 cylinder opposed design, with direct injection, Common Rail, with or without out gear and liquid/air cooled. Ranging from 220 to 380 hp. Delivering 205 hp at 2300 RPM and weighing 185 kgs, and ofcourse consuming Jet A1.
• Developments GmbH and RED Aircraft GmbH in Adenau, Germany are testing a water & oil-cooled double OHC, V12, common-rail direct injection engine. The propeller is gear-driven (single-stage, 1/1.67 ratio). Compression is 16.5 and generating 370 kW (500 hp) at take off. First flight was November 2010 in a YAK aircraft. The company aims to close the gap between expensive turboprop and low cost general aviation engines.

The above list is only an indication of available engine manufacturers and might not be complete.

Future

As time will go by we will see more and more diesel engine manufacturers emerge, some will succeed others will disappear in history but one thing is for sure:

The future will be bright for the aero diesel engine!

Written by EAI.