Engines

For the past five years, as general aviation has drifted through weak sales and anemic development, the pace of new product rollouts has been similarly flat. This year, as I mentioned in my opening day blog, the industry seems to be stirring, reflecting optimism, if not confidence in full flight. Even in slow years, Ive […]

Following their acquisition of Thielert Engines’ assets, Continental Motors is working to extend TBOs on the Thielert IO-series. And that’s not all they’re up to. Paul Bertorelli spoke with Continental’s Rhett Ross about the company’s new gearbox, its upcoming diesel projects, and support for mogas in international markets. Duration: File Size: download here

Two years ago, a South African startup called Adept Airmotive announced a V-6 engine project, and they’re back at AirVenture 2013 with a running example and some test data. The company’s Richard Schultz says testing has thus far revealed that at 320 pounds and 320 horsepower, the Adept engine has an excellent power-to-weight ratio, and […]

With Continental Motors tilting strongly toward aerodiesels as a growth strategy, CEO Rhett Ross says hes less convinced that mogas will play a major role in the aviation fuels market. In this podcast recorded this week at AirVenture 2013, Ross said Continental will remain committed to gasoline engines, especially its successful line of large displacement […]

“The U.S. has plenty of natural gas,” said Aviat CEO Stu Horn on Wednesday morning at EAA AirVenture, as he showed off a blue-and-white Husky taildragger with a new belly-mounted fuel tank that carries compressed natural gas to fuel the engine. “This airplane has redundant systems, so you can use either CNG or aviation fuel,” […]

Moving the general aviation fleet off of 100LL and onto an unleaded fuel will bring positive changes and features to powerplants that pilots will want, Lycoming’s Michael Kraft said Wednesday at AirVenture. The company says moving from leaded fuel would unlock the full feature set of its iE-2 FADEC engine for the GA market in […]

Continental Motors is apparently wasting little time in investing in improvements to increase TBRs and gearbox replacement intervals on the Centurion diesel line. With its deal to acquire the former assets of Thielert Aircraft Engines not even two weeks old, Continental said this week at AirVenture that it will field an improved gearbox for the […]

Sonex has announced it is accepting $10,000 deposits for its SubSonex Personal Jet, saying it expects deliveries of the $125,000 “ultra-quick build kits” (a price set for the first 10 depositors) to begin as early as mid-year, 2014, depending on demand. The SubSonex is a single-seat aircraft powered by the PBS TJ-100 turbojet, which produces […]

Although Continental’s purchase of Thielert Aircraft Engines has gained most of the attention, Continental continues development of its homegrown diesel, the four-cylinder TD300. On the way to AirVenture, AVWeb stopped at Continental’s Fairhope, Alabama facility to get a look at work on the TD300. In this video, Continental’s James Ray describes some of the improvements […]

If there’s any overused word at an AirVenture press conference, it’s “excited.” The second most overused word to the point of cliche is “game changer.” Considering that the last real game changer in aviation was, I dunno, the invention of the turbojet engine maybe, a clever new app with drop shadow shading and redesigned pulldown […]