Thielert in serious trouble ?
 

Doesn't sound good. From AvWeb

There was a thread on this here recently.

I recall making a *partly* tongue in cheek post suggesting that they forgot to make a provision in their accounts for nearly 100% of their engines coming back under warranty :)

It's obviously not good news in the short term but I would be VERY surprised if they stop production. Whilst the product needs some "fettling" the market penetration they have means that someone will take them on.

If nothing else, Diamond have a vested interest in the continued supply of Thielert engines!

For now, yes. But there's a well-established rumour that Diamond is developing its own diesel engine. In fact, somebody here mentioned that the prototype is already flying on a DA-40. Should not be too long before it's available. I think I heard the number 2009 in this context.

Dirty rumour put about by Diamond themselves....

http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=601

Might be a niche market for retro fitting Lycomings soon!

Diamond and other peoples engine designs
 

Didn't Diamond take over the good work of Mid West Aero Engines? No mention anywhere on their website of the small rotary engines which showed such promise.

small rotary - small promise (unfortunately)
 

I doubt we're going to see any aviation Wankel engines any more. This seems a shame, but here is the reality of the Wankel.

THIRSTY!

LOUD!!!

Either of these alone is a deal killer for aviation use, both of them together drives a stake right through the elegant triangular rotor.

And I have hands-on first person experience with a couple of Wankel engines, not just "had one once" but take them apart, rebuild them, and they run properly afterward.

The Wankel makes a lot of horsepower for its size, but horsepower comes from burning fuel, and the Wankel does that very well - it isn't a wonderfully efficient engine compared to a regular four stroke engine, even less so compared to a diesel. Each time the price of fuel goes up, the Wankel's prospects go down.

The Wankel also has a very loud and strident exhaust - that means you must have effective mufflers, and the only way to have effective mufflers is to make them large, restrictive and heavy - not precisely what we want in aviation.

There's yet another problem - tip seal life isn't great. While there are some trick alloys and even ceramic tip seals, they are quite costly and still have a limited service life.

Wankels would probably be best suited for some kind of military drone which is expected to crash or be shot down within a few hundred hours anyway, they do not appear to be the holy grail of engines for light airplanes after all. (Darn - they are so fascinating, too!)

Best Regards,

Echo Mike

Mazda RX7, 70000 miles if you were lucky before a rebuild. 45000 for the turbo.
Glad i'm not a RX8 owner!

Dirty Rumour Put About By Diamond
 

Do you always talk such rubbish. Presumably you have proof of this,because i can't believe anyone would be stupid as to make such a comment without:ugh:

Well welcome to Pprune, pilottab.

If your comment was pointed at my comment, then please note that my comment was made in a light hearted way referring to Backpacker's comment that the existence of a Diamond home-grown engine was a 'rumour', not the 'fact' which in actual fact it is, as shown by my link to Diamond's website. Happy?!

Pilottab, my friend visited the Diamond factory a few weeks ago, he bought a DA42, may i announce to you that he actually TESTED that DA40 with the Diamond engine in it ?

It's not a rumour but a fact.

Hmm, tab dont get drawn in. Not worth the effort.

BartV ask pilottab how many times he's been to the factory :E


Dont bite Tab


rans6andrew its here in black white and grey
http://www.diamond-air.at/diamondeng...087573ab0.html

Interesting info on the Diamond engines - but I can't see a 75hp Avgas powered rotary getting us very far when the minimum needed is a 150hp Avtur powered motor!

I read that major engine maintenance can only be done by the Thielert factory as a certification (as opposed to warranty) requirement. That's gonna hurt.

Anything in the bottom end yes, anything else at maintenance facility, I've got approval to change the Cylinder heads amongst other things.

On maintenace you can't treat the engine like a lycoming, read the service schedule and carry that out. If the Engine has oil leaks or rough running it wants further investigation, they do give enough warning before problems occur.

Thielert aircraft engine GmbH as part of the thielert group filed for insolvency. Shares down to 0.43 eurocent today.

Source

The flying club I just joined for PPL training was very satisfied with its C-172 with thielert diesel so they just re-fitted a second C-172 with a thielert.
I hope they can be saved somehow so that diesel engine development and support of fitted thielerts can go on...

Some more on here

Sadly.. :(

As an early DA40-TDI and C172-TDI pilot, I'm quite sad with what goes on with Thielert. They made a great step forward possible. I'm sure others (Zoche (?), SMA, Mistral Engines, Delta Hawk - if you don't know them, check my blog) will follow, and there is this Diamond project, together with BMTech, but it's sad to see a pioneering company in such trouble.

That being said, I don't know if the financial errors by Thielert are the fact of M. Thielert or not, nor if they are mistakes or tentatives to hide a bad situation. This is now a legal question, not a flying question anymore. Sadly.

Quite likely, Diamond will buy the assets from the administrator at a knockdown price.

This is usually what happens in these situations.

That's what I've been expecting all along.