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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.In 1998, one diesel engine flew on a converted airplane for the first time since 1945. Today, close to 4,000 singles and twins are flying. This is the beginning of a worldwide trend which will eventually allow a rebirth of the piston-engined aircraft, around new specs and new missions. DieselAir Research, Inc., the publisher of The DieselAir Newsletter, offers strategic intelligence services to the aircraft industry, its suppliers and its customers who ambition to benefit from this global change of paradigm which will mean new markets, new concepts, new services, new materials and components… You may be interested in our services if your firm designs and/or manufactures aircraft and components, aero engines, avionics, propellers and engine components, fuel systems or additives, advanced materials, or industry specific machinery for manufacturing of these; or provides aviation services such as fuel production or distribution; flight training, aircraft chartering, maintenance and operations (FBO’s); or airport management and design, traffic control, hangar, materials handling and storage equipment; or consulting and financial services for these industries; or advertising, sales promotion, trade shows, specialized publications. To know more, send a confidential email inquiry to Dr. Eng. André Teissier-duCros at atc@geanoverseas.com News of July 15, 2012Ecomotors secures two rounds of financing totaling $66 million equity for OPOC engine development.
You can read it anywhere on the web: This is the first time
that a truly innovative internal combustion engine concept gets such a
significant financing. But does innovative mean more efficient? More efficient
than a gasoline engine for sure, since it is a diesel. But how does it compare
with existing aero diesel engines or developments in progress?
The OPOC (for Opposed Pistons, Opposed Cylinders) engine,
says the website, is 15 to 50% more efficient than a conventional gasoline
engine. I assume it means: Depending on the power rating. At maximal cruise
speed, therefore at close to maximal power, a diesel is only 15-20% more
efficient than a gasoline engine of same power. At most optimal economy cruise,
a diesel can be 50% more efficient: This was demonstrated when 2 Cessna 182s,
one with the SMA diesel, one with the O-540 gasoline engine, flying in
formation therefore at same speed, traveled from Europe to Oshkosh. The diesel
consumed 48% of what the gasoline engine did.
So, as long as Ecomotors doesn’t publish clear figures on
their SFC, I can only assume that they have a very good diesel engine, but that
it is not a breakthrough.
In fact, reading their literature, it seems that they
abandoned their initial plans to equip a helicopter; they never publicized
plans for an airplane engine; they concentrate instead, with Navistar, on a
heavy vehicle engine; and they are talking of adapting the OPOC design to… gasoline
engines.
I shall wait for more information, and for the time being
consider that the OPOC engine will not be an aircraft engine in the foreseeable
future.
posted at 12:28 PM |
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