On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 12:57:54 +0000 (UTC), Martin Spott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> People doing business in North America usually share the impression > that people 'over there' are commonly a lot more conservative when it > comes to aircraft engines. And they have a strong lobby: One of the > major reasons why Porsche stopped its aircraft engine project was that > the US lobby (Lycoming, Continental and so) were predicting the > possibility of "difficulties" with future (spare part) delivery to > European customers .... I don't know if the lobby would make a big difference -- after all, if the Textron/Cessna lobby wasn't strong enough to keep out the new composite planes, how could the Textron/Lycoming lobby keep out engines? In fact, neither engine company has much of a reputation right now: many private aircraft owners refuse to use Lycoming or Continental cylinders when they overhaul their engines now because the two companies (especially Continental) have let quality control slip so far. Eventually, we'll have some new piston engines that work well and put Lycoming and Continental to shame. The problem so far, I think, is just that North Americans fly differently. From what I understand, most European private pilots with piston aircraft fly short distances, at low altitudes, in VMC, because of all kinds of airspace restrictions, fees, etc. As I mentioned in an earlier posting, North American private pilots fly enormous distances at a much bigger range of altitudes and temperatures, often in IMC. I often cruise at 10,000 ft, and people with turbonormalized engines routinely cruise in the mid-teens with oxygen or up in the flight levels with pressurization. I think that's why engines that do fine in Europe, like the Rotax, fail over here once they're widely used. I'm hoping that the Thielert will be different. The main impediment is the cost of installation in existing aircraft -- in many cases, it's more than the entire resale price of the plane, and you could never make it up with fuel savings (our fuel isn't that expensive). When they can manage an upgrade for USD 20-30K (including engine), and the engine has been proven effective, you'll see people lining up. All the best, David -- http://www.megginson.com/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@flightgear.org http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel 2f585eeea02e2c79d7b1d8c4963bae2d
