Hard times for Thielert
Thielert, the German company producing the diesel engines that equip the DA40 and the C172 TD, is facing up with a severe financial crisis. I don’t understand all the details of such things, but the recent events are not good: the CEO (Mr. Thielert) has been put aside, then the board has been revoked, and now the company filed for insolvency.
The Thielert share at Frankfurt stock exchange closed at a very low 0.43 EUR, and the last press release are all about restructuring activities, and so on. All information is available on their website, www.thielert.com.
When I saw the first bad signs, I decided not to write about it. It sounded like a move from family to financial business. But now the situation seems much more serious, and the future of the company could be at risk.
It’s strange to think that a company with a good product, matching the real need of numerous customers can be threatened by financial errors. There is probably nothing to do as pilot to change the situation, but I sincerely hope this product won’t just disappear.
Thielert has been the vector of one of the last major changes in general aviation. Yes they have competitors, and I’m sure that even if the company disappears, the technology will survive.
Opponents to aero-diesel engines will probably use this financial mishap to feed their flow of critics, but fans and “evangelists” like me will continue to support the modernization of general aviation engines. Anyway, with an oil barrel at 120USD, we’d better have to find economical solutions…
I wish the best possible future to Thielert. The next months won’t be fun, but keep doing a good job, and you’ll find a way out of this bad financial situation !
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Francois
I am afraid that financial errors have not been the origin of Thielert’s downfall. The real causes are, in my opinion, the following two:
1. The unreliability of the product. Your own blog discusses two Thielert engine failures, on two aircraft of the same Finnish aeroclub, within a very few months of each other. One of them (the ditching at sea) could have easily cost the lives of both occupants. Another (French) aeroclub has suffered three engine failures within 18 months on their… three Thielert-powered aircraft. This unreliability is unfortunately inherent to the turbo-diesel technology applied to aviation. Thielert has to perform extremely costly warranty work on nearly 100% of the units they sell. It has been bleeding them, both financially as well operationally. This problem is well-known to industry participants for at least the last two years.
2. The second cause derives from the first. Mr Frank Thielert wanted to put his company on the German stock exchange and did very successfully so in November 2005. However, he could not let the above condition be known to potential investors. He and his CFO, Mrs Gasser, altered the financials of the company to camouflage its real results, a big no-no. They have both been fired this month and are under criminal investigations.
I am writing a white-paper on the reliability isssues of the turbo-diesel technology and will pass it on to you as soon as it is finished. Let’s say for today that turbo-diesels have to be pushed at or beyond their mechanical and thermal limits to reach a power-density sufficient for aviation applications. When you push an engine to the limit, any engine, then its reliability and durability suffer.
And, please be sure that I am, as you are, a believer in new engine technology for General Aviation. But, as a long-time private pilot, aircraft owner and father of four children, I have always thought that reliability was “sine qua non” for aviation engines. So much so that, after suffering a streak of problems on my Seneca’s TCM engines , I founded a company to develop a better, safer and cheaper to operate engine. The company is Mistral Engines and we are presently certifying our engine line.
Apr 26th, 2008
PlasticPilot
Thank you Francois for this both business and technology oriented answer. As you might imagine, I’m not in a position to argue on sharp technical or financial details.
As I already answered you per e-mail (did you get it ?), I’ll be happy to visit you next time I come to Geneva. I will also be glad to read and discuss your white-paper.
Apr 27th, 2008
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