Ownership

After years of patient waiting, Continental Motors announced Wednesday at Aero what many diesel owners have been hoping for: significantly longer replacement cycles for its four-cylinder diesel engines. The new longer TBRs (time between replacement) extend to 2100 hours for both the CD-135 and CD-155 Continental diesels. Moreover, according to Continental CEO Rhett Ross, the […]

Piper Aircraft announced several price rollbacks and a large trainer order from the University of North Dakota on the opening days of theAero exposition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, on Wednesday morning. Piper CEO Simon Caldecott told the press that some 100 aircraft have been ordered by UND, one of the largest single trainer orders during the […]

In the early days of automotive diesels, stinky and slow were joined permanently to the concept of diesel cars. Not anymore. Driving on the autobahn yesterday in my crummy little rental Twingo, an Audi blew past me doing a buck and half and it was a turbodiesel that European drivers have come to love. I […]

Continental Motors’ Rhett Ross shared some developments in the company’s TBR program for diesel engines at Aero this week. We were on hand to ask questions and learn how the program works. Duration: 6:22 File Size: 5.4 MB download here

As the Aero shows opens today in Friedrichshafen, Germany, organizers are looking for a smaller show—down about 40 exhibitors—but a busy one. AVweb’s preview of the show schedule Tuesday revealed a full day of conferences and announcements, including new product information from Continental Motors, Daher, Jeppesen and Siemens. Aero’s Roland Bosch told AVweb Tuesday that […]

One reason Aero is my favorite aviation show is that it’s more changeable than either Sun ‘n Fun or AirVenture. Those shows tend to put the same vendors in the same place every year, often with the same booth counters and display items. Given the effort and expense of mounting a show, I can’t really […]

Environmental groups have filed suit (PDF) against the EPA to try and force the agency to set emissions limits for all aircraft. The suit was filed by Earthjustice (on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity) and Friends of the Earth on Thursday, saying the EPA has “delayed unreasonably” coming up with rules for aircraft […]

I have always been baffled by the psychology of paying a company a tidy of sum of money to assure that I get one of the first new-and-improved widgets it proposes to make: the pre-production deposit or, as it’s popularly known, a “position.” This is quite common in the aircraft business as most recently demonstrated […]

A half decade ago when diesel engines gained some traction as aircraft powerplants, the skeptics got quite a little whisper campaign going by noting that diesel engines could swing only wooden props. Their torque pulses and resonances were just too harsh for the fatigue limits of metal props. The naysayers forgot to mention—or perhaps didn’t […]

I don’t make a habit of including photos in this space unless there’s a compelling reason to do so. I prefer to imagine that my incisive prose will somehow deliver you to a place where a mere photo would be nothing but a rude intrusion on a near metaphysical bond between author and reader. But […]