But i never said that I want changes based on the “novelty” factor. I said that that there is a lot of room for improvement and that GA in the 21st century should at one point stop dealing with mixture, pre-heating engines, leaning on taxi, fouled plugs, bad cold starts, and a lot of other stuff. As I have repeated a couple of times I like those classic aircraft engines aswell – but I do not think that the future of GA should be based on them.
I wonder why an engineer would dismiss technical progress as “fashion”. Sorry, I really don’t get that. It is a fact that there has been almost zero technical progress in piston aircraft engines in 30 years. The engine in a 2016 Cirrus SR22-G5 NA will be be almost identical to one from 1980. If you say that every technical improvement one could imagine for these engines would only be “fashion” … then I understand that you believe “it is all good enough”.
My own interest would be in avoiding novelty that is worse for my needs.
FYI and FWIW the red knob/control that’s connected to the engine is called a mixture control (in English)
(sorry, of course – and corrected!)
“good enough” yes indeed – this stone age technology has been doing the job for several decades and has done it fairly well. In great numbers, too. “Better”, from a purely technological point, is possible today. A better combination/compromise of performance/cost/reliability is not, given the small market volume and the vast amount of venture capital required to create something new AND get it to the market in sufficient numbers.
Any new initiative needs several years of development, then several years to get certified, then many more years again to show its reliability. And if all that works out, who can tell today how many engines will be sold so many years from now? In the present very volatile economy, only (potential) quick wins can attract investors.
Now I feel like having repeated the obvious – but some people seem to need the same ideas reworded again and again to grasp the facts behind them.
I do agree, though, that “fashion” or “novelty” or any other from that baked-air vocabulary have no relevance in technological discussions. Neither will they change the balance sheet.
Antique cars can still be driven…doesn’t mean very well or in much comfort though….and of course the old cars lack all safety features of today’s modern cars. Same applies to aircraft – they are lacking behind auto tech, but they will eventually catch up if GA doesn’t die first.
This discussion is going nowhere and most people have got bored with it ages ago.
A car (one of a number of possible types):
A plane (one of a number of possible types):
Can we please get back on the topic of diesel engines and why they have not taken over the GA scene?
Peter wrote:
Can we please get back on the topic of diesel engines and why they have not taken over the GA scene?
With pleasure, Peter, and I’ll repeat what I’ve said in an earlier post (on topic!) – because nobody – or only a tiny minority – needs them.
With pleasure, Peter, and I’ll repeat what I’ve said in an earlier post.
“Any new initiative needs several years of development, then several years to get certified, then many more years again to show its reliability.” &c &c
Why are several companies trying to get a Diesel engine developed and certified, if “nobody, or a tiny minority, needs them”? Only TCM has three of them under development (CD-100, CD-200, CD-300) .. and there’s a couple more Diesel engines under development.
I am aware that for most Americans Diesel engines are not attractive (reasons all in this thread), but why is it so hard to accept that there’s otehr parts of the wolrd where Diesel engines would solve problems like Avgas not beeing available etc. etc. I thought this a European Aviation Forum?
Flyer59 wrote:
I thought this a European Aviation Forum?
Of course it is. I am not making a judgment here, but the biggest GA market in the world – by far – is the US, like it or not. And in this market, diesels are simply irrelevant, as they have zero advantage over Avgas. The availability is an issue mainly in Africa (and to a much lesser extent in Australia), but there 300hp+ engines are needed. Which we don’t have. To add, both markets aren’t huge either. That leaves a few southern Europeans – you really want to develop an engine for the 10 private GA flyers in Greece ? Good luck.
I’m sure we’ll move on from the Avgas burners, but I doubt very, very much that diesel is the answer.
