FAA certifies a new piston engine

An event with slightly lower probability than the sun falling out of the sky… “DELTAHAWK’S JET-FUELED PISTON ENGINE RECEIVES FAA CERTIFICATION”:

Featuring an inverted-V engine block, turbocharging and supercharging, mechanical fuel injection, liquid cooling, direct drive, and 40% fewer moving parts than other engines in its category, the new DeltaHawk engine is a clean-sheet design secured by multiple patents.

In addition, the engine’s slimmer shape and smaller size allows for more aerodynamic cowling designs and requires less space – all while providing extraordinary performance, ease of operation, and unmatched reliability. The engine is environmentally friendly, as well, thanks to its ability to burn both Jet-A and sustainable aviation jet fuels.

The company says that it has tested the engine in a Cirrus SR20!

And it cost $80 million. Wikipedia says that 1,459 SR20s were built through 2019. Let’s assume that 2,000 will be built total. If we were to spread the $80 million development cost over the most successful new airframe in this horsepower category, it would come out to $40,000 per engine (maybe Cirrus is paying $50,000 for the 215 hp Lycoming 4-cylinder that is in the latest and greatest G6 model (vibrates like a banshee compared to the older 6-cylinder Continental 200 hp design)).

How is this engine different from a car diesel engine? It supposedly can still run even after a total electrical system failure, which is what could happen following a lightning strike.

The claim is 40 percent better fuel-efficiency than 100LL engines, so that would roughly restore light aircraft to the payload-range profiles that they had in the 1950s-1970s before Americans got fat.

I wonder how long it will be before we see one in a certified factory-new airplane for carrying humans. Rumor has it they’re trying to sell this for at least 100,000 Bidies per engine, which is somewhat more than the legacy Continental and Lycoming similar-horsepower models. For a measure of inflation in our inflation-free society, note that a magnificent 6-seat Bonanza that include a beefier engine than this DeltaHawk cost only $8,000 when introduced in 1968. Official government CPI says that $8,000 from 1968 is equivalent to purchasing power today of $72,000. But $72,000 is roughly the cost of the (still-available) 285 hp Continental engine that was in the factory-new 1968 Bonanza. The equivalent in purchasing power bought an airframe, six seats, avionics, engine, propeller, landing gear, etc., back then. Today it pays for only the engine.

Europeans hate Avgas so I am going to guess that this more-expensive-that-proven-old-tech DeltaHawk engine appears first on a European plane from one of the innovation-loving companies, e.g., Diamond of Austria or Pipistrel of Slovenia (bought by Textron in 2022). Four years is an eternity in the non-aviation world, so 2027 seems like a safe guess if this engine is an improvement. However, DeltaHawk itself provides an example of Aviation Time. The company was founded in 1996 (Wikipedia) and their product has finally limped out the door… 27 years later. How about 2029 then?