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Following the problems with the Thielert company (legal actions against its owners) Diamond aircraft has now announced that it will speed up its plans to replace the Thielert Centurion diesel engines for its DA42 Twin Star aircraft with Lycoming engines. Diamond has also requested the European Aviation Safety Agency for approval to provide technical support and parts for Thielert engines. Just to be on the safe side. The problems with Thielert are a major blow to the light aircraft industry.

Comment: We expect this prepares an option to be offered to DA42 owners and customers having placed an order while the Austro Engine substitute to the Thielert engine is being certified.

News of June 17, 2008

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News of June 15, 2008

Do you own a Thielert equipped airplane?

Lycoming Announces Plans to Certify Engines On Mogas

Lycoming aims To Receive Approval For IO/O-360s By Fall 08. Aero-News comments: 'Maybe diesel power isn't the ONLY answer to ever-tightening supplies of 100 low-lead fuel. Recognizing global concerns about the immediate and long-term availability of aviation grade 100LL, on Monday Lycoming Engines announced an unleaded automotive gasoline approval program for its standard compression ratio O-360 and IO-360 product lines. Unleaded 93 AKI automotive gasoline conforming to either Euro Norm EN228 or ASTM D4814 will be the basis of this Lycoming specified fuel. Supplemental requirements within the scope of the existing standards will be stated as necessary for safe operation in aviation applications. Approval is expected by Fall 2008. Lycoming stresses the program will be an engine approval only; aircraft certification approval must be obtained separately to permit operation with this fuel. Lycoming piston engines power more than half of the world's general aviation fleet -- both rotary-wing and fixed-wing. (www.aero-news.net 6/2/08)

News of June 06, 2008

Thielert Engine Owners Form Action Group to pressure Thielert AG and Diamond Aircraft : See www.thenog.org

LOUISVILLE, June, 4, 2008 -- Reeling from uncertainty surrounding the insolvency of German aircraft engine manufacturer Thielert AG, owners of Thielert-powered aircraft have organized and retained German legal counsel to represent their interests. The Thielert Engine Owners Group (THENOG) was formed last week to protect the investment of nearly 1,000 affected aircraft owners, including about 900 owner/operators of Diamond Aircraft DA42 twin-engine and DA 50 single-engine aircraft. Nearly 50 percent of those aircraft are currently grounded and nearly all may be rendered uneconomical to operate, depending on the outcome of the Thielert situation. Owner/operators of Thielert-powered aircraft have been treated to a horror-show of bad news over the last three weeks, including the unexpected and sudden cancellation of engine warranties, quadrupled engine-part prices, a variety of service bulletins on the engines that force early engine repairs and replacements, and uncertainty over parts supplies. Over the past three weeks, owners have found the cost of Thielert engine maintenance rising by as much as 800% and have received confusing and contradictory messages about parts availability. As a result, many users have been forced to mothball their aircraft till further notice. Unexpected and unanticipated economic losses from the aircraft groundings are currently totaling about $1 million (

U.S.

) per week, said Todd House, a founder and director of the group, who is President of YourJet LLC, a startup air-taxi company in Louisville, Ky. that currently operates a D42 aircraft.
Complicating matters is an acrimonious and public battle of charges and counter-charges between Thielert, and Diamond Aircraft, the largest manufacturer of Thielert-powered airplanes. ‘Diamond and Thielert have engaged in a war of words, while afflicted aircraft owners watched helplessly from the sidelines,’ Mr. House said. ‘That all changes now,’ he said. Thielert-powered aircraft owners can now participate in the process by registering their interest and assigning their power of attorney at the Thielert Engine Owners Group website: www.thenog.org. ‘It is our goal to establish THENOG as a substantial creditor to Thielert due to the cumulative value of warranty agreements for our engines, said Vilis Ositis a THENOG founder and board member. ‘When the value of our warranties is established to the court we expect to earn a seat on the creditor s committee. Given the number of owners we already represent we expect to have a strong vote on the committee that will allow us to direct the outcome of the insolvency,’ Ositis said.
To that end, THENOG has retained legal counsel in Hamburg to represent engine-owners as a group and to obtain creditor status for them during the insolvency proceedings. European THENOG board member Peter Bondar added, ‘With hundreds of aircraft being effectively held to ransom by the actions of the Thielert administrator we have had no choice but to band together to create the legal and political pressure on Thielert (and Diamond) to resolve this issue speedily and professionally.’ Mr. House believes that strength in numbers will help achieve the goal of getting the engines and the affected aircraft flying again. ‘THENOG is now a global effort to join all Thielert engine owners in this common cause to take our place at the negotiation table and in the courtroom to protect our interests, our businesses, and, ultimately, our safety,’ he said.Owners and operators of Thielert-powered aircraft are encouraged to visit the THENOG website, www.thenog.org , where they can join the group and provide feedback on their experiences with Thielert and/or Diamond Aircraft, or contact Ken Shapero.

U.S.

(502) 314-3079

News of May 30, 2008

The Thielert Saga and its consequences for the aero-diesel industry

Bruno Kuebler, Principal of a German law firm, is presently entrusted as Receiver to manage the Thielert assets. He is a professional and as such, he knows what he knows, and he knows what he does not know; but as he has no experience of the very small and heterogeneous world market of piston engined airplanes, he does not know what he does not know. Which is why he is presently scuttling Thielert to the point that the business will soon be impossible to sell, and will very probably not survive. Not knowing what one doesnt know is the curse of professional managers who, like Mr. Kuebler, believe in catch-all, generic management, with same tools and methods for all industries. It is for the same reason that every industry who has fallen in the hands of pure financiers has slowly but surely gone down the drain. The irony is that the German manufacturing industry remains the most competitive in the world precisely because German managers are well aware of the futility of generic management methods, and have learned that, on the contrary, what is good practice in one industry becomes bad practice in another.

The market of aero diesels essentially consists in more than 800 Diamond airplanes, singles and twins, of course equipped with the 135 HP Thielert. Diamond Air is managed by an experienced, Austrian entrepreneur, Christian Dries, who enjoys an enormous advantage: He is playing with his own money; therefore he has been learning fast while being remarkably successful in the otherwise miserable industry which designs and manufactures piston-engined airplanes, an industry where successes have become the absolute exceptions among the lazaret of numerous defunct or severely ailing firms and short-lived start-ups. But too many of these Diamond planes are grounded for lack of spare parts. The ones who are flying are costing way too much in maintenance, especially now that Bruno Kuebler is charging exorbitant prices. All owners are wondering what their otherwise superb airplane will be worth next year. And Diamond has positioned itself as the diesel airplane specialist.

Other diesel airplanes do exist and fly, with engines from SMA (France), DeltaHawk (US), Wilksch (UK). Of these three, only SMA presently offers, through a network of dealers, the Cessna 182 retrofitted with its 230HP engine, an airplane which is certified worldwide including in the

. The number of 182SMAs flying is around 55 in May 08. None of the others has reached certification yet, the earliest hope being the IndUS Aviation T-211 2-seater equipped with the 120HP 2-stroke Wilksch engine.

By far the biggest market for piston-engined planes is the

. Yet, the immense majority of Diamond diesels are outside the

; and the market growth will not be in the

nor in Europe for sure, but in several NICs in Asia, Africa, Middle-East, the Pacific and South America. But this will happen only if reliable diesel airplanes are available, because all these countries have a growing problem with Avgas availability, quality, and price. And they need these planes, not to fly a $100 hamburger each week end, but for multiple professional uses including missions of an urgent nature in regions where there is little alternative to the small airplane for transportation.

Christian Dries is doing commendable and costly efforts to bring to the market the Thielert substitute made by Austro Engines. ‘Despite Diamond's best efforts to improve the situation,’ the company's statement said, ‘Thielerts attitude towards product integrity and customer support and service were substandard even prior to the insolvency. The current situation is simply impossible. The customers will ultimately decide the long-term future of TAE, and in the absence of an economically viable product, and of customers who trust the company, any future viability may be questionable.’ Located in the same industrial complex south of Vienna alongside Diamond Aircraft, Austro Engine is furiously gearing up to build new aero-diesel engines that will eventually replace the Thielert Centurion line. At the Berlin Air Show this week, Austro displayed the AE 300, a 2-litre powerplant that is an evolutionary improvement over the same Mercedes-Benz engine Thielert used for its Centurions. Austro is working with MBTech, a Mercedes Benz daughter company, to develop the four-cylinder engine, and certification is ‘imminent’ according to a report in Flight Daily News. Like the Centurion, the AE 300 is a turbocharged, direct-injected diesel engine with high-pressure, common rail technology. But it has 165 HP rather than the Thielerts 135 HP. It seems that the engine has the same relative footprint and is being specifically designed to fit Diamond's DA40 Star and DA42 Twin Star, while being able to replace the Thielert engine in existing Diamond airplane, using the same footprint for the engine mount.

AVWeb writes: ‘Austro will have to overcome several technical problems that have dogged the Thielert engines, chief among them is the requirement to inspect and/or replace the engine's gearbox at 300-hour intervals. Since it runs at the same RPM as the Thielert, the Austro has a reduction gearbox but the Hor Technologie-developed gear set is being initially fielded with an 1800-hour TBO. Further, unlike the Thielert, the Austro has no clutch, but uses a dynamic damper to insulate the prop and gear train from the diesel's sharp power pulses. The Centurion line also encountered cooling system faults that caused cracked cylinder heads. Fuel specifics for the Austro are said to be 20 percent better than the Centurion line, a claim that's consistent with the engine's performance in the Mercedes A-Class economy sedan, which delivers as much 56 MPH on the highway. The burning question that beached Diamond owners have is: when? Marcus Hergeth, the Austro managing director, told Flight Daily that first deliveries are planned for October of this year. It is not known what production levels are planned. If the Austro plans work out, they may complicate short-term efforts to revive Thielert Aircraft Engines. Because Diamond represents the majority of new engine and parts business for Thielert, investors may be reticent to recapitalize a company whose market is overhung by a major competitor who is also a customer. Diamond and Bruno Kuebler have engaged in a bitter war of words over how to restore engine and parts flow to Diamond customers. Last week, Kuebler published new parts prices that Diamond called ‘abusive’ (they certainly are, since the Thielert price list pre-bankruptcy was already prohibitive) and it announced that Thielert would no longer honor its warranty commitments. Meanwhile, more of Diamonds customers go AOG each day as engines come due for gearbox and engine replacements.’

Conclusion for the time being: The world of General Aviation needs diesel and must shift to Jetfuel. Diamond is doing what it takes to remain the leader in powers of less than 200HP for the time being, but at this very moment does not have a certified engine to propose. We can be sure they will soon. We can assume that the Thielert experience with a V8, 300-350HP engine will not survive. The SMA engine, which is an O engine of much lower power per liter (50HP/liter against 70-85 for the Mercedes derived engines), has no gear, is air-oil cooled, is STCd on the Cessna 182, and on which all reports are satisfactory, constitutes the wild card.

The case against Mogas.

Bruce B., subscriber, emails us: Thank you for the excellent summary of aero diesel news. I was wondering if you could shed some light on why the larger 150Hp + aircraft engines can not get STC for premium auto gas. Is it a compression or material issue? It seems that along with diesel technology this would be the logical replacement for AV gas?

Andre answers: Thank you for your interest. Yes, it is a compression issue: One would need a lower compression to accommodate a lower octane, therefore accept less power. But there is worse: Alloys used for valves and valve seats suffer a shorter time between overhaul when using mogas. However a serious redesign of existing engines would solve all that. Then you would come to the worst problem: At this time, small airports, especially in developing countries but also in North America, dream of getting rid of Avgas because of availability and dwindling down demand; and serve only Jetfuel. What Mogas would mean is three different fuels to sell instead of one. It is not worth it. Better change to diesel and use Jetfuel, with the advantages of diesel on top: In Africa, Indonesia or South America and other NICs they do not hesitate, and these parts are where the market for piston-engined airplanes, small today, will be growing; whereas in the US Avgas at 5.30-5.80/gallon is going to mean the end of the active life for a huge number of 30-year old airplanes.

News of May 28, 2008

ILA 2008: Diamond duels as new engine sparkles, and Dr. Kuebler, Receiver for Thielert, expresses dissatisfaction

Austrian GA airframer Diamond Aircraft announced its new Austro Engine AE300 2.0 170hp diesel engine yesterday at ILA, after its long-time supplier Thielert Aircraft Engines (TAE) filed for insolvency just last week. Sticking to diesel preference, it is a Jet A1-powered compression ignition piston engine developed from an automotive Mercedes-Benz engine. The AE300 is based on the same core engine as the Thielert unit. Christian Dries, chief executive of Diamond, speaking at the show yesterday morning said: ‘Solving our own problem is the priority, but we are happy to work with others. There are more than 70 [Diamond] aircraft waiting for an engine.’ ‘Why did we start our own engine development programme?’ Answering his own question, Dries said: ‘Well, it was not our intention to invest €40m in the factory, I’d rather have saved the money. But the TBO of the Centurion 2.0 was becoming very short. It would almost be cheaper to operate with a twin turboprop.’ On a potential certification date, Dries says: ‘As soon as possible. As you can see, it is close. It has to be if we are flying three aircraft into the show on them.’ And to that extent the company has flown three aircraft into ILA with the new AE300 power plant – the DA40, DA42 and a DA50 Magnum. Dries also sees the new engine as a good retrofit option for other Thielert customers. ‘We will see if it fits into a [Cessna] 172. But it could also be an engine for the [Cessna] 182. I think the 182 with the AE engine would be good, not as good as our aircraft but only because we have got a new design with better aerodynamics,’ he says. The AE300 will burn between 10 and 34 litres per hour depending on conditions and although the AE300 is actually slightly heavier than the TAE option, Dries is confident it is by far a better power plant. ‘This engine will meet the 2,000h TBO. It has to.’ According to Dries the DA40 has become a ‘quick aircraft’ while the DA42 is going to become ‘a real 190kt aircraft’.

Speaking at ILA yesterday (Tuesday) the recently-appointed provisional insolvency administrator of TAE, Dr Bruno Kuebler, said that current public disquiet with the company was largely due to a ‘disinformation campaign’ initiated by Diamond Aircraft. ‘In the past few days, Diamond repeatedly let it be known that I was not very cooperative in negotiations and did not seem very interested in securing the TAE business in the long term. This is blatantly misrepresentation of the facts. In actual fact, Diamond offered to buy a large number of engines and spare parts – but a price considerably lower than the price that would be charged to the end customers. That’s how Diamond tried to negotiate special conditions. Diamond has not yet directly responded to our offer of 13 May 2008 in which 90% of the required spare parts available would be delivered to Diamond. Now that more than one week has passed, we will release the parts for the market.’ Under German insolvency laws, customers buying engines, spare parts or maintenance from TAE must now pay in advance. And an immediate 20% price hike also means that large customers like Diamond – and Cessna – are not happy and would probably prefer to wait for the inevitable sale of TAE to be completed later in the summer before making any further purchasing decisions and further clarifying all outstanding warranty issues, both pre- and post-insolvency. (Flight Daily News 5/28/08)

The reference to the TAE 300 fuel consumption from 10 liters (2.64 US gallons) to 34 liters (9 US gallons) per hour confirms for the first time in data from an aircraft manufacturer how low fuel flow can be with a diesel at maximal economy conditions.

The TAE 300 delivers 170HP with 2.0 Liters, which means a power of 85 HP per liter. This is even higher than the Thielert figure: 155 HP for same cubic capacity. We are waiting to read how Austro Engine addresses technically (metallurgy, surface treatments) the issues which have plagued the Thielert engine: fast wear and tear, frequent replacement of gearboxes, and similar.

News of May 14, 2008

Cessna: The Thielert-Skyhawk is delayed.

The accounting scandal that led Thielert Group to insolvency has also delayed delivery of the first Cessnas with factory-installed diesel engines. In October the companies set mid-2008 for first deliveries of the Skyhawk 172S, but discussions at Cessna in the late evening of May 1 have let those plans stall. “There won’t be any deliveries in 2008. We can only sit back now and watch the situation before deciding anything final,” says Cessna communications director Doug Oliver. CEO Jack Pelton says the coming months will determine if Thielert’s assets can be put back to work meeting Cessna’s needs. “I don’t see Cessna buying them, but we’ve been in contact with other companies that are very interested in potentially buying Thielert. We’re very interested in the product but we’re going to make sure they have a path forward,” he says. Thielert holds a supplemental type certificate for the Skyhawk, allowing Cessna to offer the factory-installed Thielert FADEC-equipped Thielert Centurion 2.0s liter turbo engine. The 155 hp engine also operates on Jet-A fuel, and was the focus of an extensive market survey that found high interest in a diesel-powered Skyhawk.

News of April 27, 2008

Frank Thielert knows a lot about diesel engines, less about GA conditions of customer service, and not enough about managing a public company.

Now that Thielert Motoren GmbH goes through severe financial troubles, the natural questions are the future of its line of aero diesels, and how it affects the whole aero diesel industry as a whole.
Where did Frank Thielert go wrong?
Our impression from messages received from the fleet managers, most of them stuck with Diamond DA40 and 42, is: If Thielert did deliver on customer service and spare parts, and if rigorous procedures were applied for preventive maintenance, the Thielert engine would be costly to maintain but would do the job. The users would impatiently wait for a new generation of similar engines where the bugs would have been weeded out.
A frequent opinion in the US says: The in-line water-cooled geared engine derived from an automobile engine block was a flawed concept in the first place. Diamond Air does not think so: the Austro line it is developing in-house with Mercedes contribution looks very much like an improved Thielert, taking into account what Diamond learned, which is a lot.
If Diamond is on the right track, it is a case for them acquiring Thielert: the Austro line could be manufactured by the Thielert facility. It would take retooling. If Cessna joins in with a long term contract for their needs, it would reduce delays in bringing the 172 and 206 diesel to market.
For the same reason, there is an alternative case for Textron, who owns Cessna and Lycoming, to consider acquiring Thielert itself in context of a long term agreement with Diamond.
What about Teledyne Continental? Not impossible. But we perceive Continental as less in need to jump on the diesel bandwagon now. They may be the one who decide to wait and develop their own line.
Will the whole saga delay aero diesel progress? Certainly. But SMA, Wilksch and DeltaHawk are making progress, with different designs, aiming at different market segments; and meanwhile the world outside the US badly needs aero diesels now: This is also a message we read regularly from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America: 'Our problem is we are stuck with our fleet: Avgas is no more available.'
Of course as always in aviation, all progresses are very slow. And the drama at Thielert may well be that the engine simply was certified too soon.
The dramatic component in the Thielert saga is how its management handled the stock market. It imposes extremely dangerous short term conditions for a small firm handling an engineering-intensive component for which customer service is so extremely decentralized.
One thing is for sure: 30 years from now, there will be many, many aero diesels between 100 and 500 HP flying in the world. To get there, everyone fasten your seatbelts.

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

News of July 11, 2008

Diamond Air declines further interest in bidding for Thielert

News of July 10, 2008

We have available Pictures of the first diesel powered helicopter.

News of July 09, 2008

In 2008, four major events are causing a shock in the aero diesel market – DieselAir special world review, Chapter 1.

News of July 05, 2008

Investors search process underway at Thielert, says Administrator

Owners Group Questions Thielert’s Motives - Files for creditor action to defend against predatory practices

News of June 19, 2008

Diamond Air plans a shift to Lycoming for DA42s