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I tried to find engines and airplanes using Diesel/Jet-A ?I could only find LSA - tecnam & Gamini engine.
-- Junyoung Yun, August 27, 2009
SMA Engines has a 230 hp engine for Cessna 182�s. You can find information about SMA engines at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMA_Engines . You can also glean some info at the company�s website at http://www.smaengines.com/spip.php?id_rubrique=1&id_article=7. At about double the price of having a Lycoming or Continental engine factory overhauled they not economically viable in North America unless the price difference between Avgas and Diesel climbs to five bucks or so � perhaps they have a market in Europe if avgas costs including the tax on recreational flying pushes the cost to over the ten dollar per gallon figure, or perhaps in parts of Asia where avgas is not available. Theilert has a couple of engines, the Centurion 2.0 is certified for Cessna 172�s & Piper PA 28�s in Europe and their website says they should be certified by the FAA soon - http://www.centurion-engines.com/ Don�t have any pricing but the retrofit kit can take 310 hours of labor to install. (Aw, if someday someone building planes and engines catches wind of the plug and play concept ). The 4.0 is certified for the Cessna 206 (and again it looks like only in Europe) A company in Germany can get a Duke B60 configured � for about what used DA42�s are selling for at the moment. You�d have a plane that would have a noise level of less than 78db, cruise at 220kts at FL220 and have a range of greater than 1,800 NM - could easily get you between North America and Asia. Austro Engines has recently received certification in the U.S. for a 170 hp engine. http://www.austroengine.at/products/jet-a1-piston-engines/ The most prolific author I�ve run across on diesel engines is Dr. Andre R. Teissier-duCros and his website is at http://dieselair.com/
-- Richard Miles, August 28, 2009
Did check with Martin Hagensieker who did the diesel conversion on a Duke B60 with Theilert engines but has found the gear box and clutch do not make it anywhere close to their projected service life and Thielert is not interested in providing service.
-- Richard Miles, August 28, 2009