SA firm develops advanced aeroengine

[Guzz]

A mate of mine sent this article... Makes for interresting reading.

SA firm develops advanced aeroengine, test flight planned for early 2008

What is very probably the most advanced piston engine for general aviation (GA) aircraft in the world today has been developed in South Africa, and will hopefully be test-flown in the first quarter of next year - on a South African-designed and -built sports aircraft, the Ravin 500. It is believed that this will be the first time that an African-designed aircraft will have flown, using an African-designed engine.
"This is the first new spark ignition piston engine in the aviation industry, in our power range, that has been brought through the develop- ment stage, for some 25 years," reports Adept Airmotive MD Richard Schulz. (Adept Airmo-tive is the small enterprise that has led the develop- ment of the engine.) "It represents a huge step forward for GA."
GA engines power what are popularly called light aircraft and range between 200 hp and 400 hp (or 150,8 kW and 301,6 kW). "Existing piston engine designs have their roots in the 1930s, although, of course, they have been updated," he explains. "But their underlying concept is now clearly dated. They are inefficient with regard to fuel consumption and power-to-weight ratio, need a lot of maintenance, are consequently not environment-friendly, and have high acquisition and operating costs."
So Schulz and founding partner Geoff Cronjé concluded nine years ago that there was a need for a modern GA piston engine, designed to modern standards. They were inspired by developments in the automotive internal combustion engine design, which has advanced rapidly in recent decades.
"We wanted an engine design that was state-of-the-art in regard to internal combustion engine technology, using the most advanced materials and techniques, including electronic components, was environment-friendly - including excellent fuel efficiency - and could be produced under lean manufacturing conditions, with the minimum specialist machinery but high and replicable standards: basically, using computerised numerical control technology," elucidates Schulz.
The new engine also had to be retrofittable in existing aircraft, and not just be suitable for new designs. The company has benefited from collaboration with specialist technology stations at different universities of technology. These include the Composites Technology Station at the Durban University of Technology and the Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Technology Station at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein.
"We had to establish small-scale foundry facilities to make aviation-quality castings for the engine. The engine and engine tooling were designed in-house, using computer-assisted design (CAD), and US CAD software house Autodesk has selected our engine as one of its Projects of the Year," he highlights. Machining of the components was contracted out and no moulds were used for the production of any part of the first engine, all initial moulds being produced on the CUT's sinter station rapid prototyping machine (the only one of its kind in the country, manufactured by EOS).
"Our engine is a six-cylinder narrow-angle (120˚) V6 unit, making it compact and an inherently very smooth and balanced engine, which is critical for aviation applications," he explains. "It can be revved much higher than existing GA engines - at about 5 500 rev/min instead of about 2 500 rev/min - so we have incorporated a speed reduction unit for the propellor." In comparison with existing GA engine designs of comparable power, the new engine is lighter by about 35 kg to 40 kg, and is 30% more fuel effi- cient. "It can run on car petrol, or biofuel ethanol, as well as aviation fuel," he adds. "The service and operating costs of our engine will be closer to those of a motor car than those of the GA engine."
Obtaining funding was not easy. "We don't have a mature venture capital sector in South Africa," he points out. "But we were lucky - we got initial funding from Tanglewood Private Equity. Subsequently, we received an Innovation Fund grant from the Department of Science and Technology (DST)." The DST grant is for R13,5-million over three years (two years remain). "We also have a loan from AgustaWestland, as part of its offsets under defence industrial participation. It is also helping us get the necessary certification which will open the inter- national markets to us."
The engine design organisation and the manufacturing facility have to be certified before the engine itself can be submitted to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for ceritification. EASA approval will open the world to the new engine.
The company hopes to market the new engine once it is in production, at between R350 000 and R400 000 for each complete engine package (excluding propellor).

[Wart]

Adept is based at Virginia in Durban and have been working on this engine for about 3 years now. It looks really good and I can't wait for them to develop the smaller version that can be used in microlights and ultralights.

Well done Geoff and the team; you guys make us proud!!!