For the last years, the Jet-A1 piston engines makert has been dominated by Thielert with its Centurion family. Another german company, Zoche, achieved to create some buzz, but unfortunately none of their engines got certified yet (read here).

With Cessna and Diamond using their engine, Thielert is in a good position, and even the French SMA is in a position to endanger Thielert’s monopoly. Until now the most credible concurent is the new engine being developped by BMTech together with Diamond.

However this could change soon. According to avweb.com, Teledyne Continental’s new President Rhett Ross anounced company’s comittment to develop a diesel engine to be certified by the end of 2009. A prototype shall be demonstrated in late 2008. The new engine should be in the 300 HP range, making it a serious candidate for high-performance single engine like PA32, Bonanza, and C210.

With one of the two major gasoline piston engine manufacturers entering the diesel / Jet-A1 powered engines market, it is clear that even the US market will slowly move to this new technology. It started in Europe because the price of AVGAS became a prohibitive factor well in advance, but now that even the US is affected by this, aero-diesel engines have a bright future !

When it all started years ago, the DA40 TDI was the sole plane available with a diesel engine. Then came the C172 retrofit, the C172-TD, and now this engine from Continental. When a PA28-TD and Lycoming engine will be available (who knows…), the whole single engine plane market will be covered, and I will no longer look like the strange guy flying the strange planes.

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