Onefor Eric MC - Diesel Engined aircraft?
Discussion
Have they ever flown? - I'd have thought a frugal lazy (in terms of rpm) Diesel with big torque would have been ideal as a long distance priop driven aircraft.
Have any ever flown?
Any picyures?
No naysayers going on about diesel and engine noise in this thread please
I await the oracles response....
Have any ever flown?
Any picyures?
No naysayers going on about diesel and engine noise in this thread please
I await the oracles response....
Plotloss said:
Wow - that must have taken some thinking about The Germans had a diesel bomber in the second world war. Jumo engine I think.
Recently Thielert have converted the A class diesel engine for aero use. They are in finacial trouble and may now be bankrupt.
Wilsch do a 3 cylinder 2 stroke diesel which is not certified but is in use in a couple of British homebuilts.
Diesel air have a 2 stroke opposed piston diesel that is similar in layout to the Jumo. Just much smaller.
There are a couple of other diesel engines out there but I can't remember the details.
Diesel is seen by many as the future for GA as avgas is a minority product that is about £1.80 a litre whilst jet A is around 50p
Recently Thielert have converted the A class diesel engine for aero use. They are in finacial trouble and may now be bankrupt.
Wilsch do a 3 cylinder 2 stroke diesel which is not certified but is in use in a couple of British homebuilts.
Diesel air have a 2 stroke opposed piston diesel that is similar in layout to the Jumo. Just much smaller.
There are a couple of other diesel engines out there but I can't remember the details.
Diesel is seen by many as the future for GA as avgas is a minority product that is about £1.80 a litre whilst jet A is around 50p
Plotloss said:
Eric Mc will be able to top those google amateurs... SOME German aircraft of the pre-WW2 era were diesel powered. However, the technology wasn't really pursued to any great extent and by the end of the war, most of the diesel engined aircarft were out of production or the later versions were powered by more normal petrol aero engines. The vast bulk of German aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s were conventionally powered by petrol engines.
Examples of German aircraft which had diesels were versions of the Junkers Ju86 and some of the Dornier and Blohm und Voss flying boats. Fitting diesels to flying boats made some sense as it was envisaged that they would be based at ports and docks or be refuelled from supply ships at sea where they could have access to marine diesel. It is interesting that foreign customers of the Ju86 airliner variant nearly all opted for a more normal radial petrol engined version rather than the diesels. An example would be South African Airways which had a small fleet of Ju86 airliners before WW2.
In more recent years, the improvements in auto diesel technology has prompted some light aircraft manufacturers to look again at turbo-charged diesel units. I know one chap who is building a diesel powered version of a Europa. I think it has an Audi engine.
Examples of German aircraft which had diesels were versions of the Junkers Ju86 and some of the Dornier and Blohm und Voss flying boats. Fitting diesels to flying boats made some sense as it was envisaged that they would be based at ports and docks or be refuelled from supply ships at sea where they could have access to marine diesel. It is interesting that foreign customers of the Ju86 airliner variant nearly all opted for a more normal radial petrol engined version rather than the diesels. An example would be South African Airways which had a small fleet of Ju86 airliners before WW2.
In more recent years, the improvements in auto diesel technology has prompted some light aircraft manufacturers to look again at turbo-charged diesel units. I know one chap who is building a diesel powered version of a Europa. I think it has an Audi engine.
Career change 
They've always been a bit of a sideshow compared to petrol aero engines. If jets hadn't come along they might have been pursued further. Once mainstream aircraft went turbine, there was less incentive to invest vast sums of research and development in diesel aero engines. As I said earlier, the auto industry HAS invested in this technology and now new generation diesels are beginning to find themselves coming under consideration for light aircraft use.
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