Lycoming Diesel

In the latest EAA Sport Aviation magazine (I think the June issue) there is a two page summary of new engine technology from S&F. In the section on Lycoming there is one sentence that says Lycoming is going to announce something about a aero diesel at Air Venture next month. Anyone know anything about this? I know Lycoming partnered with Detroit Diesel in the summer of 1998 to develop an aero diesel but obviously nothing became of that.

Diesel Technology

I'm quite interested in any news about emerging diesel aircraft engines.

As I recall, Diesel engines are about 20% more efficient than gasoline (actually, less than that, but the fuel has more energy than gasoline, so it all adds up to about 20%).

Some of this efficiency is lost because diesel weighs about 7 pounds/gallon compared with gasoline at about 6, however.

Since I'm just starting with my 7A emp kit, I'm hopeful that a Diesel IO-360 180 hp might be availabe in 18-24 months.

Regards all - - (fairly new poster) Seaplaner



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Lycoming announced last year at OSH that they were doing R&D on powerplant alternatives, including a diesel engine. I've inquired about announcements for experimentals that the "kit" engine suppliers should be aware of before OSH, but I haven't heard anything. Even if an announcement is made, it may be a couple of years before something is available commercially. These things take time.

seaplaner said:

As I recall, Diesel engines are about 20% more efficient than gasoline (actually, less than that, but the fuel has more energy than gasoline, so it all adds up to about 20%).

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Annoying internet nitpick to follow:

Diesel engine should not imply diesel burning engine. One of the columnists for the GA News pulled this one a month of so ago, went off on how Diesel is not available on airports ect.. All of these aero engines are built for Jet-A,they may be able to run on Diesel or #2 heating oil..but that is not their intent.

The advantage compression ignition has over spark (gasoline) engines is in thermal efficiency due to higher compression. Btu/mass 100LL is within 2% of Jet-A so BTU per mission fuel mass is a wash.

However, aircooled gassers have less then optimal BSFC (valve cooling ect)..so the liquid cooled diesels are getting better than 20% improvement in fuel flow. Deltahawk is showing 11 gal/hour at 200hp vs. 16 gal.hour for an IO-360. That is probably the best apples to apples comparison.

Not to mention Diesel and Jet-A have better lubricity than gassers tending to better TBO times. These engines are typically turbocharged with critical altitudes over 10K feet. Folks in Denver would need to compare their little 200hp diesel to a IO-540.

I'm pretty excited as well, I hope they don't pull an SMA and ask $80K for it.