A year ago Austro Engine didn’t exist as a separate entity – now the Wiener Neustadt-based company is becoming an increasingly important player as an OEM engine supplier for the general aviation and UAV arenas.

Growing out of the engine division of Diamond Aircraft when it specialised in rotary ‘Wankel’ AE50R engines, Austro Engine has leapt to the rescue following the recent demise of Diamond’s previous supplier Thielert.  The Austrian company will begin supplying its new AE 30 Jet A1-fuelled compression ignition piston engines in July 2008 for installation in Diamond Aircraft’s DA40 TDI Diamond Star and DA42 TDI Twin Star aircraft.

Certification with the new engines is ‘imminent’ according to Austro Engine’s MD Marcus Hergeth, as “just about every suitable engine test cell in Europe is helping us to build-up the necessary hours. The engine is performing even better than we had dared to hope and the fact that we were allowed to fly three Diamond aircraft to the show, equipped with the new engines, shows that the European aviation authorities agree with us.”

The AE 300 engine is based on the Mercedes Benz 2-litre DOHC diesel engine from the ‘baby Merc’ A-Class car – and it produces 165.6-bhp.  The direct fuel injection ‘common rail’ technology means that the engine’s fuel economy is far superior to AvGas units of similar power output, while the gearbox from German company Hör Technologie is designed with an initial TBO of 1,800-hours, rising to 2,000-hours – matching the entire engine’s  TBO at EIS.

First deliveries of the re-engined DA40 are scheduled for October this year, with the DA42 following by the end 2008.

Diamond Aircraft CEO Christian Dries said yesterday that the comments of Thielert Aircraft Engines’ (TAE’s) provisional administrator, Dr Bruno Kübler, were “wrong and misleading”.  Dr Kübler was quoted in Wednesday’s Flight Daily News saying that Diamond had initiated a “disinformation campaign” concerning TAE.  Said Dries: “There is no way that I would have wanted to profit – at the expense of Diamond’s customers – from the deal proposed by TAE and its administrator.  My only interest was in obtaining parts for my customers at an acceptable price and this was not on offer from TAE.”

AE300


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Source: Flight Daily News