Some AVWeb commentary on the DA42 V1...
Diamond's New Twin
Thought this comment was quite interesting...
I saw something at Austro that truly astonished me. On the floor of the factory were about 25 fully dressed OM-640 Mercedes engines, used in the A and B class. They were fresh from the factory. Daimler makes about 1500 of these engines * a day.* So I was looking at 20 minutes worth of production.
Austro uses the core of this engine for the AE300, stripping off the automotive components and building it back up with its own approved components. Those brand new fuel pumps, turbos and airboxes were off to the scrap heap. (Sigh.)
If you know anything about series production, you know the more of anything you build with less variability, the higher the potential QC level. So those cores are at automotive standards, not lesser aviation standards. That bodes well for long-term durability. The first Austros are just now coming in for overhaul, so they're beginning to see if the claims will potentiate.
posted by Paul Bertorelli on March 15, 2012