AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2018 - 18

WAYPOINTS

Our technology conundrum

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Give me the latest and greatest-but only when it's proven

Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES owns
a 1972 Beechcraft
Bonanza with a
healthy beyondTBO engine and
wonders daily
what might sit in
his cowling in the
future.

18 | AOPA PILOT April 2018

MINUTES: The time it takes most any hangar flying session to turn to grumbles about the state of the fleet.
The average age of our airplanes is over 40 years. Mine
turns 46 this year. The industry delivered 2,234 aircraft in 2017-across all segments: pistons, turboprops,
business jets, and helicopters. Between crashes and airframes parted out, we are at best maintaining but not
growing the fleet size, thus the average age will continue to increase.
We've seen great progress in avionics over the past
two decades, but almost none in powerplants. Everyone
around the hangar wonders why "someone" doesn't certify a twenty-first century aircraft engine that has even a
few of the features we've had in cars for decades-electronic ignition, variable valve timing, electronic fuel
injection, to name a few. Such features would allow us to
move away from our boutique (read: costly) 100LL avgas,
get the lead out, and generally make life grand again.
And although we pine for such improvements,
who wants to be first to fly that new engine down the
Alleghenies at night in weather? Or across the Atlantic?
How proven must an engine be before you would invest
in it for your airplane?
Say what you will about our 1930s-era Lycomings
and Continentals, but decades of experience and overall good reliability provide a lot of comfort on difficult
flights. If the pilot makes fuel available, the engines keep
on ticking with surprising regularity.
The "newcomer" in this space, Rotax, which has
only been supplying aircraft engines for a few decades,
has become a reliable performer-but many old guard
pilots still see it as "new" and therefore somehow not
yet trustworthy.
I ponder this conundrum of desire for new technology versus distrust of anything new while watching what
is happening around us. EPS-Engineered Propulsion
Systems-for several years has been developing what
appears to be a remarkable diesel engine. The design
was frozen in 2016, and the company was expecting
certification in 2017. That has now slipped to late 2018,
according to company officials. The slippage is not
because of mechanical problems, but because validating
the software that runs the engine has taken longer than
anticipated. With variants planned for between 320 and
420 horsepower, the engine would be an ideal choice for
high-performance singles and cabin-class twins. While

the beefy diesel will likely weigh more than an air-cooled
avgas engine, its better fuel specifics will allow it to ultimately outperform conventional powerplants. That,
combined with a planned 3,000-hour TBO and the ability to burn jet fuel, which is much cheaper than avgas in
most of the world, could make it a winner.
With its advanced metallurgy, single-lever power
control, and other improvements, it holds a great deal
of promise. But, knowing the mindset of aircraft owners,
I wonder how quickly it will be accepted into the fleet.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the performance
spectrum, Bye Aerospace, Pipistrel, and others are making great strides in electric propulsion for light singles
and training aircraft.
Bye just got another $5 million round of funding to
continue its development of the battery-powered Sun
Flyer 2 trainer, which founder George Bye says can fly at
65 knots for as long as 3.5 hours. At more typical training
speeds of 80 to 100 knots, it easily will last for a 1.2-hour
training flight. Battery charges should take less than 30
minutes. And with only one moving part, the electric
motor should last some 10,000 hours. Electricity costs
should be about $2.40 an hour and total operating costs
will be about $16 an hour, including reserves. Typical
hourly operating costs for a Cessna 172 are about $88.
Meanwhile, the company is working on a four-seat electric airplane and numerous large unmanned aircraft.
Pipistrel's Alpha Electro two-place electric trainer
also continues to make progress. A group in the Fresno,
California, area has launched the Pipistrel Alpha Electro
Trainer Sustainable Aviation Project, which is working
to develop a network of charging facilities for an electric
training fleet. It has also embarked on a project to win
FAA approval to use the Alpha Electro in flight training. Transport Canada certified the trainer in February.
It all looks promising and I am convinced that diesel,
electric, and probably a few other powerplant options
will propel our airplanes into the future. I'm also convinced that the challenges for such progress have less
to do with the technology than in convincing aircraft
owners to make the change-the same owners who in
the hangar are clamoring for such advances.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - April 2018

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