Engines

At Sun ‘n Fun in April 2014, Rotax announced the new 912iS Sport, which has more mid-range torque for aircraft without constant speed props. In this video, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli flew the engine with Rotax’s Alexander Mitter. view on YouTube

In casual conversation, some people tell me that they think the best part of an aviation journalists job is getting to fly lots of different kinds of airplanes. Maybe. On the other hand, it should be no surprise that most new airplanes these days fly about the same, given that most were certified years ago […]

Continental Motors says it will take the wraps off a new 300-hp aircraft V-6 diesel engine at AirVenture in July, according to CEO Rhett Ross. Like the Centurion 2.0 and 2.0S diesels, the new engine leverages automotive technology from Mercedes Benz and is aimed at the high-performance single- and twin-engine segment not yet served by […]

As a journalist, Ive come to recognize a certain look when I ask a victim…err, I mean, a source, a question I know is going to be sensitive. If the question is getting close to pay dirt, the person suffering the interview adopts a certain Cheshire cat look that implies to me: if only I […]

Late last week, I visited the Rotax factory in Austria, where Ive been once before and Ive interviewed the company executives and technical people more times than that. These discussions drift around various themes, but two recur noticeably. First, Rotax and its parent, BRP Powertrain, is, above all else, an engine company. But the conversations […]

At its Gunskirchen, Austria, factory, Rotax celebrated both 25 years of producing the 912 series engine and the 50,000th engine in the series. AVweb was there and prepared this video report with the company’s Francois Tremblay. Learn more here. view on YouTube

At its Gunskirchen, Austria factory, Rotax on Thursday rolled out its 50,000th 912-series aircraft engine and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the engine family with a fly-in at the nearby Wels airport. Manufacturers from around Europe flew in Rotax-powered aircraft for sales demos. The company combined the event with an annual homecoming of Can-Am Spyder […]

I was looking through the archives the other day to see when we did our first serious coverage of electric aircraft. It was 2009; five years ago this summer. We imagined then that production versions would be trickling to market in a few years. They arent. But thats not to say theres not interesting progress […]

Piper chose the Aero show two weeks ago to unveil its new diesel-powered Archer DX for good reason. The work on the conversion was done at Continental/Technifys skunk works at the Altenburg airport, a former East German military base where Thielert did all of the original test flying for its initial certification of the Centurion […]

Complaining about the high cost of flying is more or less universal, but here in Europe, where the Aero show is in full swing, they seem to be used to it. Just as in the U.S., general aviation at a serious level-and by that, I mean maybe owning a Cirrus or a Mooney-requires significant wealth. […]