Is the "Heavy" Piston Twin dead
For as long as I can remember the heavy piston twin has been the aerial UTE of not just Oz but just about every part of the world. The Chieftain, C402, C404, Queenairs. Theres surely more types that I have forgotten. These can be found doing pax charters, hauling freight at night, bank runs and a myriad of other unglamourous duties.
Now we have a new breed, the C208 Caravan, TBM850, Kodiak, the Turbine Airvan, the new Kestrel turbo prop. All single engine turbines.
The new SE turbine aircraft are fantastic machines, they have performance that would have been unthinkable when the Chieftain and Cessna twins were designed, not to mention the Buck rogers avionics like the Garmin G1000.
But there is still one problem, turbine engines are still incedibly expensive to overhaul, and the cost goes way up if you do many short sectors as turbines also have a cycle limit. the overhaul cost of a PT6 or TPE engine is simply eye watering.....something like 250K, and thats a starting point.
So are the big pistons dead as a concept. Theres lots of new 350Hp engines around from Continental and Lycoming, both have FADEC which dont seem to have the reliability problems of the Chieftains J2BD engine. The Lycoming ie2 series engines looks promising but they seem to have gone quiet. RED aircraft engines is working on a 300Hp V6 diesel and a 500Hp V12 diesel( which looks suspciously like a take off of the Audi 6ltr V12 diesel as found in the Q7).
I'd like to see what could be done. Now an interesting aircraft would be a stretched Kestrel to seat 10, powered by 2 V12 diesels. Sounds perfect for a family SUV.