The only fuel that ignites itself is something like this
Any facility that uses that stuff will also have an RA around it. It is very nasty. Try putting your finger in some and see what you get back.
Very good fuel though
You can get a take-off run measured in centimetres and a sea-level climb rate of 30,000 feet per minute.
But if it all goes wrong... The glowing bits are hydrazine :)
Edited to add fun videos
[youtube URLs can be dropped into your message directly. Why this is again not working I have no idea... damn youtube never gives you the same URL twice]
@peter, probably me... On ipad at the moment so drag drop not easy.
It's hard to imagine citizens allowed to fly through the airspace but not allowed to pronounce their opinion about the government.
One shouldn't confuse GA with private flying. While the two largely overlap in Europe (and to a lesser degree in the US), this is certainly not the case in the emerging markets and the southern hemisphere. It's these commercial operators for whom Jet-A is interesting and where, IMHO, the market will be. Cessna is very well established in this field - in some countries there isn't really anything else - and they wouldn't have built the 182JA for private pilots in the US or Europe.
Also bear in mind, that for many commercial GA operators turbines are not an option, there will be a piston fleet out there for many years to come. Couple that with increasing scarcity of Avgas and - depending on country - a sometimes huge price differential and a diesel makes one hell of a lot of sense.
What I got from SMA was that Conti does not have the technical skills to further develop the old SMA design. That was probably one factor in acquiring Thielert.
Finally the years of insolvency administration are over.
It will be interesting to see whether Conti picks up the already certified Centurion 4.0 (Mercedes V8 diesel with 350hp). There are several Cirrus SR22 flying in Germany with this engine and it seems that activity as increased recently.
Interesting. So is Conti sticking to the SMA still or will they kick out SMA and go fully Thielert? What will happen to the Cessna 182 now, which is offered with the SMA engine?
Actually, with Thielert not offering a 200 hp engine, the SMA engine might well still have it's market even with the Thielert set with 135/155 and 350 hp.
Conti buying Thielert is a bit like somebody on his deathbed buying shares in both heaven and hell 
Quite clever, and standard corporate practice.
Conti does not have the technical skills to further develop the old SMA design
If they are so incompetent (which I can completely believe) why did they buy the company? Or have all the SMA engineers left after the purchase, and without leaving any documentation?
The problem is that this might kill SMA. Hey that could well be why Conti bought them - standard corporate practice too, quite well known to the Owner of the Universe (Garmin).
Which would be bad for the avtur fuel scene because the SMA could be a viable IO540 replacement, whereas the Thielert will never be, and will always be at best a very complicated and very expensive retrofit.
If they are so incompetent (which I can completely believe) why did they buy the company? Or have all the SMA engineers left after the purchase, and without leaving any documentation?
I was told by an SMA engineer that Conti just bought the rights to the old engine design (which was not great), no documentation, no engineering services, no support. Given that Conti's last engineering effort was done ca. 1950 and they had no experience with modern diesel technology, it was a strange thing. The avweb article quotes a Conti rep with turbocharging problems, exactly one of the main issues of the first generation SMA engine.
Which would be bad for the avtur fuel scene because the SMA could be a viable IO540 replacement, whereas the Thielert will never be, and will always be at best a very complicated and very expensive retrofit.
The Centurion 4.0 can be. There are several SR22 flying with it. The Thielert engines are not bad and there is no fundamental issue why a geared aircraft engine wouldn't work. It's just harder to get working.
To me it looks like Thielert is the real thing for Conti, not the SMA license. Thielert brings military business, too.
Conti and SMA, now I am confused... I thought SMA was Safran?
SMA is now a SAFRAN subsidiary, still using the SMA brand name. Before that it was affiliated with Renault. Like always in France, in the end the owner is one of the partially government owned conglomerates
Continental (TCM = The Chinese Motors) is owned by a Chinese government aviation company. They have licensed the design of the old SMA engine back in 2009 with the plans of enhancing and manufacturing it themselves and focusing on the retrofit market.
Lycoming (owned by Textron, the Cessna mother company) signed an agreement with SMA and offers service for SMA engines via its support network. Cessna uses the SMA engine for its 182 JT-A. The Lycoming support deal and the SAFRAN affiliation provide a major boost for this engine.
Thielert has 4 certified engines: Centurion 1.7 (discontinued), Centurion 2.0 (135hp), Centurion 2.0S (155hp) and Centurion 4.0 (325hp) and is by far the largest manufacturer of aero diesels in units sold. The company has been under insolvency proceedings for a number of years. The reason is that the company was profitable during that time so there was no time limit on the insolvency proceedings and the administrator wanted a good deal. What was not possible is invest money into new products. The result of that is that Conti gets a whole bunch of things that are ready like better TBR and a new gearbox and doesn't have to do much to turn an already viable company (profitable) into a much more viable company.
