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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 24, 2005The DieselAir Newsletter Forum is ready!We are pleased to announce that you can now start open discussions on all topics related to diesel engines for General Aviation by clicking and registering on our Forum page. We ask you to use it only for such topics, in the broadest sense: your opinion and questions on aerodiesels, questions on competing engine technologies, on available and future STC's, on new aircraft using a diesel as OEM component, regulations and certifications issues, and of course any personal experience of diesel aircraft is of interest to all our readers. Regarding such experiences, we ask you to refrain from hearsay opinions, and concentrate either on your own experience or on experience for which you can give a source who accepts to be quoted. Keep in mind our own goals: We have factual reasons to be convinced that the diesel engine has a major future for GA aircraft of upto 450 HP per engine, and can always explain why. We are certain that the diesel revolution will be good for GA as an industry, as a market and as a community. We are not supportive of any one diesel manufacturer but of all of them, since we know that, for many years, they are helping each other through their successes in creating this fascinating market. So, log in and get started! We are waiting for your input. posted at 11:13 AM News of May 19, 2005SMA Engines, now restructured, seems to have a strategy and the resources for it.Two competitors are presently dominating the small world scene of aero diesels: Thielert/Centurion, and SMA. This domination is essentially due to two factors: they have been working on an aero diesel for a very long time, consistently, without interruption or change in market or strategic goals; and their stockholders have devoted massive resources to the project. In the US, one small firm has shown the same dedication but with limited means: DeltaHawk Engines. We will soon publish a report on Thielert, and then on DeltaHawk. SMA is a European manufacturer of aero engines which is, since the recent restructuring, owned by a new industrial group: SAFRAN. The name won’t tell you anything. Yet behind it you find an industrial heavyweight of 56,000 employees doing global business, owning now several famous French, British and Belgian manufacturers addressing the aerospace, defense, avionics and telecom markets: Snecma and Turbomeca (turbojets), Sagem (telecom, defense and industrial equipment), Messier-Bugatti (defense and aircraft systems) which recently became Messier-Dowty, CFM (joint venture with GEC in heavy turbojets which has delivered over 10,000 CFM 56’s), SEP (a key developer of the rocket engines for the Ariane satellite launcher which recently became Europropulsion through merger with Fiat-Aero), Labinal (now a division), Hurel-Dubois, etc. See details on the very complete website www.safran-group.com and notably go to the history page: you will be surprised to see that the pre-WW1 origins of many business components of the new group encompass the most famous names of French aviation and automobile. Before this major merger, SMA was jointly owned by Renault Motors, Snecma and EADS and, as often when a small, new venture is owned by three large groups, was more or less left on its own. The very origin of the venture was a development of a 4-cyl aero diesel by Renault’s racing engine division Renault Sports, on a spec chart proposed by SOCATA, the Trinidad manufacturer. From the origin, the idea remained to propose the same O-305 design (4 opposite cylinders, 305 c.i or 5,000 c.c.) capable of 3 levels of power according to compression ratio, manifold pressure and rpm’s: 180, 230 and 300HP. And the strategy envisioned aimed at addressing the European and overseas markets suffering more than the US of prices and availability of Avgas, but at same time engage the lengthy process of FAA certification for the engine and later for various STC’s. I will not venture an opinion on the total development costs of this engine, but one can get an idea from the fact that the R&D effort began in the early nineties and that the SMA team of today counts over 70 full time employees, and a plant in Southwest of France geared to produce 2,000 engines/year. Today, from a strict business point of view, what they have to show is 25 aircraft flying with an SMA, and a backlog of some 150 engines to deliver in Europe, South America, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and a few other countries; but out of the 7 Cessna 182 SMA flying in North America, 3 only are in the US, two of them being owned by FlyJetA in Sarasota FL (plus, to be accurate, 1 Piper Dakota-SMA…). Sales in the US would have taken off faster, if it was not for unexpected delays in the certification process. However, today the 182SMA is certified by the European JAA and, thanks to the reciprocity agreements between JAA and FAA, will be US certified very soon, the last minor modifications which FAA requested being implemented right now. The 182-SMA will be certified for use up to 12,500 ft and for a TBO of 2,000 h. Why not higher and longer? A diesel can fly much, much higher than an atmospheric gasoline engine. Because, this way, SMA could save time in the certification process. The scope of use will be gradually increased as experience builds up. SMA has worked on the STC’s for the 182, the Socata Trinidad, the Piper Dakota and the Vulcanair (Ex-Partenavia) P 68. Their intention afterwards is to concentrate on developing soon the 300 HP and the 180HP for the 172 STC, and on developing OEM’s with major aircraft manufacturers: the Maule M-9 (now flying and on the Maule catalogue), Cirrus, Cessna, and possibly others. They will provide assistance to credible firms engaging their own resources in developing specific STC’s for various retrofits. And of course the engine is immediately available for the Experimental market. What do they think of the competition? Basically, they wish them well: Any commercial failure of any of the competitors at this early stage will hurt the whole diesel market. The growing fleet of 172-Thielert’s and DA-40/42’s flying in Europe is perceived more as an ally than as competition. posted at 5:17 PM News of May 18, 2005We flew the Cessna 182 SMA during the Discovery Event on May 16 at PDK …On May 16, The DieselAir Newsletter (Publisher Yours Truly) and Atlanta PDK Airport’s Wings & Things pilot supplies shop (Proprietor Leonard Harris) organized a series of discovery flights with FlyJetA’s demo Cessna 182Q N 200ER converted with the SMA 305-230 diesel engine. Fly Jet A LLC, CEO Patrick Canivet, is the Florida distributor and service center licensed to execute the conversion, and operates two 182 SMA’s. Patrick came himself with pilot Bob Ohlinger. SMA was represented by Thierry Saint-Loup, Senior Field Support engineer. 20 visitors came to see the plane, and 6 discovery flights took place with local pilots owning a 182 and considering their options at next TBO. We learned a lot about SMA during this event, see next paper. N200ER has been completely refurbished, looks and feels like a new plane (no, there are no oily diesel smells). The nose is very different from a standard model, with 4 air intakes positioned like eyes and gills of a shark. So is the massive 3-blade propeller. When you open the hood, one notices that the 4-cyl. engine is very small (it has only 305 c. u.), and positioned in front, the space available behind being used for the heat exchangers, and the turbo being located where the carburetor used to be. The dashboard displays a full IFR equipment with the now classical Garmin 430-530 combination, but the 3 usual throttle-propeller-mixture controls are replaced by a single throttle controlling power. The propeller pitch is automatically maintained at 2,200 rpm, and the small manual pitch control is used only during the run-up check. The manifold pressure is in the green up to 85 PSI, which explains clearly why such a small engine can generate 230HP at only 2,200 rpm, and will soon generate 300 HP at 2,400 rpm. The engine starts at the very first solicitation, like any diesel, and one notices at once that it is less noisy than my good old O-470. Before leaving the tie-down we conducted a noise comparison test with my own 182, running each engine at 1,000 then 1,700 then 2,300 rpm. Absolute decibel figures would be meaningless since we were not in conditions to control environment, but we can state as certainty that at all speeds the diesel was 2 decibels less noisy than the O-470, which is a very significant difference. During taxiing one notices the accuracy of the throttle which I will discuss later. Run up, clearance, take off. During take off, acceleration demonstrates the strong torque. So do the rotating and initial climb. Again the torque gets your attention: more right rudder than usual, and the climb rate is very good. I can confirm that a diesel of identical nominal power has more kick to accelerate and climb than a gasoline engine, which is by the way well known of European car drivers. (Diesel automobile represent today some 40% of car production in Europe). I established a cruise, then a slow speed flight to give my passenger time to look at the Stone Mountain’s famous bas-relief sculptures, then a maximal rate climb at 80 knots and got at once to a stable 1,200 ft/mn. We refueled the plane, for the sheer fun of surprising the Jetfuel truck driver, not at all used to refill a high wing Cessna. Patrick showed us the plane logbook: The 49 gallons we put in (N200ER is a Q model with 92 gallons tanks) corresponded to a bit more than 6 hours of flight, including the six discovery flights meaning take offs, climbs and play arounds. So we were witnessing a bit more than 8 gallons/hour. Patrick said to count on 9 gallons at maximal cruise. This means savings of at least 4 gallons/hour. But the picture of a small piston engine plane being refueled with Jet A sends another signal: Now we don’t need Avgas anymore… This is the future. The 182 SMA keeps all its promises so far. I want to insist on what impressed me the most: On final approach I crossed the usual turbulence before runway 2L touchdown, well known of student pilots and so good for training. I controlled sink with the throttle. Again the accuracy is amazing and the feel is completely new. Coming back to my 182, suddenly the throttle felt mushy, gargly, and uncertain. When you move the throttle of a diesel to a position, it gives you an exact power. You move it backwards just one bit and get another slightly lower power. And you forget leaning the mixture, squaring the prop and manifold, pulling the carb heat, or checking the CHT (CHT monitoring during initial climb with 10º flaps at full load is a fascinating skill in our hot, muggy climate). This power control is so accurate that you envision at once how easy it will be for ATC, in an emergency, to override the A/P and take full control of a plane when the pilot had a malaise, including lowering the speed to 4 gallons/hour and establishing the exact approach speed for an automatic landing. I will prefer that to any parachute. “Ah! But if you lose your engine?” Will you ask. I answer: how? There is no ignition, you can turn off the contact and the master switch, lose your battery, and it keeps running, only 450 moving parts instead of 2,500… When you open the engine after 2,000 hours the parts are so clean that you still see the honing marks in the cylinders; it runs on synthetic oil in which it is hard to find a trace of metal… Jet fuel use sets you free of any practical fire hazard… I am ready to cross the Atlantic with such a plane. posted at 12:50 PM News of May 08, 2005How long was SMA in Chapter 11, and why?Several web publishers have correctly mentioned that in February 05, SMA filed for Chapter 11 in France. This was in fact a transitional stage lasting as long as the old stockholders (SNECMA, Renault Motors and EADS) came to an agreement about who would face SMA's financial obligations, and how. In April, a provisional restructuring was put in place by which SNECMA was facing all of SMA's obligations and became the sole owner. This allowed an exit from the Chapter 11 status. The restructuring is provisional because SNECMA's merger with SAGEM (aerospace components, French leader) has been announced and is in the closing process. When it will be completed, SMA will be directly a subsidiary of SAFRAN, the new name of the group resulting of the merger. posted at 12:17 PM |
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