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News, facts, and comments on the coming revolution for piston-engine aircraft.

News of April 23, 2003

Honda

Honda Motors claims to have developed an aero-engine, FADEC monitored, running on Mogas, which outperforms conventional air-cooled opposite cylinders engines in terms of power/weight and specific fuel consumption. Honda joint ventures with Teledyne Continental to assess the market for this engine. This means that Continental abandons its diesel project developed with NASA funding. It also might mean that Continental expects Mogas to be more and more available on airfields which may be good news for the existing fleet of Mogas STC'd planes. But the same may be true for diesel Mogas in the long term.

Running an engine on motor fuel, whether diesel or gasoline, makes all the more sense as both jet fuel and Avgas are priced roughly twice their Mogas equivalents. However, we think that the future will favor the diesel for some basic reasons: safety (diesel fuel ignites only under extreme conditions); overall fuel economy and longer range combined due to higher efficiency of diesel against comparable gasoline engine and higher density of diesel fuel; lower maintenance costs (no plugs, no ignition system); and nominal power maintained at higher altitudes meaning more speed.

posted at 4:24 AM

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Mission Statement

Every month: news, facts, and comments on the coming revolution for piston-engines aircrafts between 130 and 400 HP: Retrofitting a diesel engine to run on Jetfuel or Kerosene, reduce Gallons/Hour by some 30%, eliminate ignition systems (magnetos, spark plugs) and their problems, eliminate mixture control, increase TBO to 2,400-3,000 hours, increase performance between 6,000 and 12,500 ft., and drastically reduce Operating Costs.

The letter is intended for piston engines aircraft owners, manufacturers, fleet operators and FBOs, re-manufacturers of engines for these aircrafts, manufacturers of engine components and ancillaries, and all professionals acting in decisions of engine exchange or refitting at TBO, in North and South America, Pacific Rim, African continent, and all parts of the world were Avgas, Mogas, Kerosene and Jetfuel are available.

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