Thierlet
Nothing like an Englishman for misspelling proper nouns. Only in the US are they still better at it.
Jan_Olieslagers wrote:
Nothing like an Englishman for misspelling proper nouns. Only in the US are they still better at it.
Helpful. Do you do apostrophes as well?
Like all grocers 
(thanks to you know whom!)
How come, that this thread has reached 20 pages without noticing that RED got the certification for its engine over a year ago?
Grocers’ apostrophes’ are not as bad as crooked horizons
China makes the Cirrus and Mooney and Continental
And China makes all the IT gear we use in the West, including Apple Samsung, etc 
That’s really stretching it. They could not make an Iphone without the customer having some 2 or 3 figure number of their own people making sure nothing gets screwed up.
The Chinese bought into the US plane makers because they have loads of cash (well, they had when they did it; they sure as hell don’t any more because China is well and truly on the skids now) and they want to be on the ground floor when the Chinese GA market explodes, c. year 2150… (they always look long-term). Their home-based copies are pretty crap and saleable – without any meaningful certification – only to domestic users and 3rd World countries for training, probably military training.
And that is another dimension – Chinese ownership will destroy the government demand for diesels, in any Western market, particularly the US military, and particularly in the exploding (pun intended) business for drones. And since the US diesel GA market has very little in the way of economic drivers, that’s about the end of it out there.
How come, that this thread has reached 20 pages without noticing that RED got the certification for its engine over a year ago?
There’s a good question! But perhaps the engine is not really successful? Is there any indication how many are actually flying?
At 500 HP it is perhaps bigger than the average requirement. Might do well, though, in modified versions of utility bushplanes (C206? Pilatus Porter?), IF they can cope with the extra weight vs. a turbine.
Peter wrote:
Chinese ownership will destroy the government demand for diesels, in any Western market, particularly the US military, and particularly in the exploding (pun intended) business for drones.
Actually, somewhere around this thread we already mentioned that the US military has switched to Lycomings diesel. They need the diesel for their drones more than anyone. They switched not because of the Chinese ownership but because of the bancruptcy at the time.
The Chinese buy into everything here, not only airplanes. However, it was said at the time that they bought into Cirrus because they wanted basic trainers for their air force, never confirmed but I think their airforce got some. Possibly they discovered the catch: it’s avgas which they don’t have enough. Shortly thereafter they bought Continental, ever since then Continental has licensed the SMA and bought Thielert. Now recently they buy Mooney and Mooney starts developing a diesel plane. Coincidence? Maybe. But one thing is sure: Avgas is extremely rare in China and their aviation industry is blooming, if not in GA so far, they have a huge interest in airliners and other stuff. Apart, not only in China is Avgas a very expensive fuel, in all of Asia. Jet Fuel however is readily available wherever you go.
It remains to be seen what the real outcome is, but if the Chinese are one thing: they are not stupid. They do things for a reason and they would not do it if they did not believe in it.
mh wrote:
Aside from Thielert, does anyone know flying SMA Diesels? I like the SMA approach much more than the Autro/Thielert engines. Furthermore, a 2400hrs TBO seems more appealing than a 1200 hrs TBR.
The recommended lifetimes for the Thielert/Centurion/Continental engines can be found here (or here for the very latest revisions – service bulletin TAE 125-0001)
| TAE 125-01 (Thielert 1,7 l) | 1000 hrs |
| TAE 125-02-99 (Centurion 2.0/CD135) | 1500 hrs |
| TAE 125-02-114 (Centurion 2.0s/CD155) | 1200 hrs. |
Hopefully the TBR of the latter two will be raised.
Aviathor wrote:
Hopefully the TBR of the latter two will be raised.
It’s expected to be raised to 1800 and 1500 respectively but nothing confirmed officially.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Actually, somewhere around this thread we already mentioned that the US military has switched to Lycomings diesel.
Again, there was one profotype installation of the Lycoming done by the airframe manufacturer at its expense. They demonstrated it for marketing purposes to the US military in two events in late 2013 and early 2014. Link
I would be interested in knowing how the US Army is supporting its Thielert powered tactical UAVs now. It was published at the time that the Chinese did not purchase the rights to military sales.
My observation is that turboprop UAVs are now more likely to gain production contracts.
