Let’s change the premise a bit. A Vans is designed to take a Lycoming.
But we’ve not yet seen an off the shelf Lycoming you can fit to an RV with a simple “push to start” button and single lever operation, although it certainly seems to be the holy grail for some pilots.
alioth wrote:
But we’ve not yet seen an off the shelf Lycoming you can fit to an RV with a simple “push to start” button and single lever operation, although it certainly seems to be the holy grail for some pilots.
There is the iE2. Maybe someone has installed it in an RV-10? Then there is ULPower, installed in several RV-4 and RV-12. The ULP is simple push to start, but not technically single lever, since only electric CS prop can be installed, thus a separate governor with a separate lever must also be installed (not part of the engine in any sort of way). As fixed pitch, it is full FADEC though.
Then there is the Diesel Jet, here. EASA cerified. I haven’t seen it in any production aircraft, but the same engine is also sold with large success by Lycoming for drones (replacing old Thielert engines)
There are several non certified “modern” engines around, and they are indeed used a lot, only not nearly as much as Lycoming/Lycoming clone, or Rotax. Also, there are virtually no Continental engines used for non certified aircraft, except the small and almost always old ones (O200 size) here and there, mostly in old planes as well.
I don’t know how interested you are in aircraft history, but single lever as the holy grail? maybe. The German fighters in WWII eventually all had single lever control. In theory much less pilot load than two levers + some mixture control as in US aircraft. In practice though, not much throttle usage is used in a dogfight. You simply want as much power as you can get, and if at all, it’s only the throttle lever that is used. Not much difference in a dogfight. For cruising/transport, since the single lever control in the German planes wasn’t 100% optimal, they switched the pitch in manual mode to achieve best range. The US fighters already were in manual mode. The actual difference were minimal. In cruise/transport you have all the time in the world to fiddle around with levers in any case.
The advantages of push to start and single lever (full FADEC), is IMO first and foremost to increase reliability by preventing misuse/abuse of the engine. FADEC also enables much better performance, but that is not due to computer control as such, it’s more a result of what computer control enables in terms of other stuff that is impossible by manual/mechanical control. Common rail direct injection in diesel engines for instance.
But we’ve not yet seen an off the shelf Lycoming you can fit to an RV with a simple “push to start” button and single lever operation, although it certainly seems to be the holy grail for some pilots.
The Lycoming TEO540 fits the bill, and is also used on certified airplanes (e.g. the Tecnams in revenue service for Cape Air).
Alternatively the CC393 is push-to-start electronic ignition but not single lever yet.
Bathman wrote:
What the training industry needs the robust airframe of a spamcam mated to a modern engine.Anyone for a PA28-140 with the Rotax 915?
Isn’t that what DA40 is?
Hey,
Just viewed this video, it’s worth the 22 minutes, examining different engines and why most new ideas fail. They also give Diamond the well deserved credit they should have and their Austro engine.
And hey, they reference EuroGA :)
It happens to the best of us ;)
