Archerfield back in the late 70's and early 80's, and indeed the country, was
suffering the pains of a rapidly expanding General Aviation sector - Archerfield was actually running out of Avgas
and restricted fuel supply except for essential services (read this as Royal Flying Doctor Service using non-turbine powered aircraft) -
flying training virtually came to a stand-still and a lot of aircraft owners were in serious trouble financially
To overcome the Avgas problem many private aircraft owners turned to Mogas STC's (Supplementary Type
Certificates) to enable them to continue flying, especially in the non-commercial sector, by using car
petrol - the price of avgas had also doubled overnight - assuming you could get it!
By the late 80's interest in alternative fuels/design developed overseas - there were similar
problems with Avgas supply/cost - most investigated the possibility of using Avtur (jet turbine fuel) in a small jet
or a piston "diesel" (read as kerosene) type engine
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The turbine concept was put aside due cost but the thought of a "diesel" powered light aircraft engine
remained and by the mid 90's designs were well under way for "compression-ignition" engines operating on the jet fuel Avtur
Enter the French who were at the time competing with Boeing for a share in the passenger jet
market and bingo - 10 years later we now have a
"compression-ignition" (as opposed to calling it a diesel - diesel fuel is not approved so
it should not be called a "diesel") drop-in/exchange specifically designed horizontally-opposed aircraft piston engine
There are by now a number of "compression-ignition" light aircraft engines available - most
require STC's to enable installation into existing airframes with a few making their way into new production
aircraft, mainly from Europe (Germany)
Click HERE for News Desk Report back in June 2003
of a converted motor vehicle "diesel" aircraft engine
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;)
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