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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.
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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 |
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We flew the Cessna 182 SMA during the Discovery Ev...
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