ULPOWER Aero Engines

Formed in 2006, ULPOWER Aero Engines is a small Belgian company which started as a joint venture by a number of individuals and companies. Their intention is to develop and manufacture a light weight aero engine where power and reliability is priority number one.

This has resulted in the UL260 and UL350 family of engines. They are a four cylinder, air cooled, direct drive, multipoint injected and FADEC equipped low RPM engine. To this day several aircraft manufacturers have included this engine in their designs. One could say that the designers have succeeded in their goals.

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ULpower engine design

ULpower engines are built around proven technology. Multi point electronic fuel injection is used to replace the inefficient carburetors of earlier times resulting in lower fuel consumption, no carburettor ice with redundant variable timing dual ignition. The propeller is direct driven reducing weight even more.

This has resulted in an aero engine with an excellent power to weight ratio suitable for use in ultra light, LSA and other small experimental homebuilt aircraft. If you are looking for a modern, non complex (Rotax), light weight, fuel efficient engine then this is the one.

FADEC

ULPOWER UL260i Aero Engine

The engine has a Full Authority Digital Engine Control and it controls all aspects of engine operation, altitude compensation, the amount of fuel injected and the timing of the ignition. All of this results in a stable RPM, no icing, lower fuel consumption, easier starting (just press the button and go) and good throttle response. More detailed information about ULPower FADEC.

The choice for a FADEC driven engine was relatively easy: Why design a new engine and use magneto and carburetor technology from the last century? Thereby avoiding carb ice and improving fuel economy.

Air cooled

Another manufacturer produces water cooled aircraft engines. As this brings along more complexity, weight and points of failure. ULPOWER has chosen to design an air cooled engine with a large enough fin area suitable for high power in high temperature situations.

Modern features

ULpower has included a number of modern features in their engines which are very attractive to aircraft builders. Below a list:

Modern Technology 4 stroke, air cooled, 4 cylinder opposed engine
Dual (redundant) electronic spark ignition (variable timing)
Multipoint electronic fuel injection with automatic altitude and temperature compensation
Electronic RPM limiter
Direct propeller drive
Wet sump forced lubrication with integrated pressure regulator
5 bearing crankshaft with thrust ball bearing
Ram air cooled cylinders and cylinder heads
High fuel efficiency
No carburettor icing problems
Excellent power to weight ratio
Electric fuel pump and pressure regulator to eliminate vapor lock and facilitate starting even under adverse conditions

More technical information on the UL260i engine in these pdf files: English, French, German and Dutch.

Engine development

The company is continuing development into the fuel injected UL350i/S (118/130 bhp @ 3300 RPM) and even an 107 bhp aerobatic version (UL260iSA). Read more about that in ULpower Engines Overview.