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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 July 27, 2007Powerplant Developments in UK unveils the Gemini 100HP Opposite Piston 2-stroke Diesel, aims at LSA marketPowerplant Developments, a UK company, in a joint development effort with Weslake Air Services and Jade Air, an engine remanufacturing shop, unveiled plans at AirVenture 2007 to produce a diesel engine for the LSA market. Tim Archer, ex from Superior Engines, President of Powerplant Developments, said the company has been working nonstop over the last seven months to make their idea a reality. Weslake Engineering is known for engineering Formula 1 racing engines, and recently expanded to help build the Gemini engine. Jade Air, which has been around since the 1970s, specializes in engine overhaul, repair, and engineering consulting. Derek Graham, Chairman and Co-founder of Powerplant Developments, believes that Europe has been forced to lead in diesel engines because of fuel prices, and the US will be soon to follow. "The LSA category represents the future of this industry," Graham explains. LSA manufacturers consulting with Powerplant Developments desired an engine capable of 100 horsepower and weighing 150 pounds. Fuel efficiency was a big concern, as well as fuel availability. The answer lay in a diesel engine that most had forgotten. As Graham says, "I founded my business on the basis of identifying a market need and satisfying a market need." A lighter engine for the LSA market was the change most LSA manufacturers desired, so the company began to work on concepts for such an engine. Michael Daniel, head of R&D for Powerplant Developments, had the idea to resurrect a somewhat unconventional engine that Graham says "simply fell off the radar." Powerplant Developments Gemini 100 is an Opposite Piston supercharged 1.6 liter three cylinder that produces 100 horsepower and weighs a scant 150 pounds. The two-stroke engine has no cylinder heads, valves, rockers, pushrods or camshafts, simplifying design and making the engine extremely maintenance-friendly. The Gemini is supercharged because their design requires forced induction to operate. Since the supercharger saps 30 horsepower (the engine can actually produce 130 horsepower), plans are to eventually upgrade to a turbocharger which would only require five horsepower to run. The fuel efficiency of the diesel is what essentially motivated Powerplant Developments, and the Gemini 100, at 75% power at 5,000 feet, consumes 4.75 gallons per our of Jet-A compared to 6.6 gallons per hour of Avgas for a Rotax 912. Since the engine employs dual crankshafts as well as some other non-conventional aspects, introducing a training program for this engine will be a priority for the company. The Gemini 100 sports two pistons in each of its three cylinders; the pistons fire toward each other, the mixture combusts, and they are driven away. Graham notes the technology originally appeared on Lufthansa aircraft in the 1930s, but was abandoned in favor of the turbine engine, though no one had considered its potential as a lightweight engine. Currently Powerplant Designs is researching a DVD training program, but as the maintenance schedule is small, and the engine is designed for a 2000 hour TBO, the transition should be relatively simple. The first Gemini 100 engines will be available to the experimental market in mid 2008, and the engine will be ASTM certified after that. The prototype engines will fly by fall 2007. Cost? "How much will it cost or how much will I sell it for?" says Graham with a laugh. Plans are to offer the Gemini 100 for around $18,500, or about 10% more than the popular Rotax in most LSAs. The Gemini is smaller in every dimension than the Rotax it will compete with. It will allow manufacturers more freedom in shaping the cowling of their aircraft and designing engine cooling into the airframe. Current studies by Powerplant Designs have shown that the Gemini Engines could be designed up to a staggering 600 horsepower. Tim Archer is former Superior Air Parts Executive. "Having someone with Tim’s reputation, integrity and experience leading our team certainly puts us way ahead in many of our certification and marketing efforts," Derek Graham, Chairman and Co-Founder of PPD said. "Tim helped take his last company from just a PMA parts supplier to becoming a certified engine manufacturer. I can’t tell you what that experience will mean to our efforts to bring the new Gemini Engine to market." "I am extremely excited to have this opportunity," Archer said. "It's not often in life where you get a chance to live your dream -- and that's just what Powerplant Developments is giving me the chance to do. I'm going to be part of a team that is going to do something that will truly impact the way people use private airplanes for recreation and business," Archer continued. "Not just in America and Europe, but around the world." Before being named Superior's President and CEO, Archer had held a variety of positions in the company and was a long time TCM executive. (Aero-News Network 7/25/07, DieselAir research) DieselAir Comment: The Gemini is obviously a pursuit of the British D-Air project: A scaled down Junkers Jumo diesel 2-stroke Opposite-Piston engine, which has been flying for many years on a Luscombe demonstrator. Latest news is that the D 100 project has been acquired by US firm Fabritech, Inc. in East Alton, IL. The Junkers Jumo of 600HP, designed in the early thirties, still holds the world record for specific fuel consumption for aero engines. A diesel for Light Sport Planes? If the price of the engine is comparable to the equivalent gasoline engine and if the engine does demonstrate a higher reliability, then the advantage of increased range will be very attractive. We can expect an impact of the Gemini engine on the US market by 2010, when the engine will be certified, and STCs for a few major LSA designs are secured. posted at 11:41 AM |
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