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News of December 01, 2012
How many diesel engines are flying today worldwide? Who makes them? Who will make them tomorrow?
To get a historic point of comparison, the all-time high before 2010 was in 1944-45, when there were some 1,800 diesel engines flying, most of them Junkers Jumo, most of them on German tri-motor flying boats used for ASR, liaison and reconnaissance. And then there were none until the late nineties, a year during which a few prototypes were beginning to fly in Germany, France, UK and U. S.
Our estimate is: between 4,500 and 5,000 units. It doesn’t include Drone applications, which are significant for Centurion and DeltaHawk, but it includes LSA’s and homebuilt:
Centurion-Thielert (4-cyl. 4-stroke 1.7 and 2.0 liters geared, Germany): the obvious world leader, with around 3,700-4,000 engines OEM’d on Diamond DA 42, DA 40 and Robin Ecoflyer, and retrofitted on Cessna 172 (certified in the US and UE, and just recently certified in Ukraine and Russia), plus Piper PA28. The small customer Robin Aircraft has sold 35 planes as of now and seems to keep selling them mostly to flight academies in Europe. Note that the Ecoflyer is the lowest priced new, certified diesel airplane available worldwide.
This leaves apart the case of Centurion-Thielert, the outcome of Thielert’s Chapter 11 in 2008. At the time, it seemed a desperate case, made worse by Diamond developing its own engine. The insolvency administrator appointed by the German court, Bruno Kübler Lawfirm, did a remarkable job all being considered, since the firm went on producing, selling and servicing as much as possible (at the cost, of course, of some disgruntled aircraft owners left out in the cold by Thielert’s insolvency..), solved technical issues and developed a credible preventive maintenance program which fully eliminated previous problems, returned to profitability in 2010, and never secured any external financing other than routine credit. Officially Centurion is seeking a buyer, but meanwhile remains a going concern.
So we have 2 absolute world leaders on one side who are the only ones competing head-on on the engine market (all the others are in different power niches), while various deep pockets are supposedly making long term plans. Never a dull moment.
News of December 01, 2012
How many diesel engines are flying today worldwide? Who makes them? Who will make them tomorrow?
To get a historic point of comparison, the all-time high before 2010 was in 1944-45, when there were some 1,800 diesel engines flying, most of them Junkers Jumo, most of them on German tri-motor flying boats used for ASR, liaison and reconnaissance. And then there were none until the late nineties, a year during which a few prototypes were beginning to fly in Germany, France, UK and U. S.
Our estimate is: between 4,500 and 5,000 units. It doesn’t include Drone applications, which are significant for Centurion and DeltaHawk, but it includes LSA’s and homebuilt:
Centurion-Thielert (4-cyl. 4-stroke 1.7 and 2.0 liters geared, Germany): the obvious world leader, with around 3,700-4,000 engines OEM’d on Diamond DA 42, DA 40 and Robin Ecoflyer, and retrofitted on Cessna 172 (certified in the US and UE, and just recently certified in Ukraine and Russia), plus Piper PA28. The small customer Robin Aircraft has sold 35 planes as of now and seems to keep selling them mostly to flight academies in Europe. Note that the Ecoflyer is the lowest priced new, certified diesel airplane available worldwide.
This leaves apart the case of Centurion-Thielert, the outcome of Thielert’s Chapter 11 in 2008. At the time, it seemed a desperate case, made worse by Diamond developing its own engine. The insolvency administrator appointed by the German court, Bruno Kübler Lawfirm, did a remarkable job all being considered, since the firm went on producing, selling and servicing as much as possible (at the cost, of course, of some disgruntled aircraft owners left out in the cold by Thielert’s insolvency..), solved technical issues and developed a credible preventive maintenance program which fully eliminated previous problems, returned to profitability in 2010, and never secured any external financing other than routine credit. Officially Centurion is seeking a buyer, but meanwhile remains a going concern.
So we have 2 absolute world leaders on one side who are the only ones competing head-on on the engine market (all the others are in different power niches), while various deep pockets are supposedly making long term plans. Never a dull moment.
