I was at the Diamond Factory on Easter Monday.
There are both DA42 and a DA40 flying fitted with the new Diamond engines. One of the pilots told me that the DA40 cruised at 170kts at FL120 at 100%. Fuel consumption is 20% less than the Thielert.
The new engine has the turbo mounted higher than on the Thielerts, so there is a change to the engine cowling. I have a photo of the DA42 test plane and can post it if anybody interested.
First deliveries of new engine are expected (by management) in second quarter of 2009 but the engineers are (apparently) not so optimistic.
DA50 is also flying regularly. I have a photo of it fitted with flow indicators on the wings.
Nobody knows exactly why the DA42 MPP crashed in Romania, though it is not reckoned to be technical failure. But survey work is conducted at high weight and low speed (and in this case in a mountainous environment) and the suggestion is that it may have been a handling error.
Anybody interested in the photos send me an email or explain an easy way to post photos on here!