Testing continues at Mistral Engines in its efforts to receive FAA certification for its new, 300 horsepower, G-300 rotary aircraft engine.
“We are extremely pleased with the progress that our engineering and development team has made in recent months on the G-300 engine,” said Philippe Durr, CEO. “We have the engine mounted on a Maule MX-7 flight test aircraft and it is currently undergoing ground power tests at our U.S. base in DeLand, Florida.”
Durr also stated that, concurrently with the pending flight tests, the company’s engineering team is about to finish structural testing in the US. The company is also testing its proprietary Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system. Engine endurance tests are also scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year.
The normally aspirated Mistral G-300 is a three-rotor engine that is intended to bridge the current performance, reliability and cost gap between current piston and turbine engines. The company states that the new engine series “will deliver a responsible solution to the environmental, social and economic challenges faced by general aviation in the 21st century.”
Durr also said that because of the G-300’s advantages over traditional piston engine technology — multi-fuel, electronically controlled, vibration-free and liquid cooled — the company is seeing significant interest from aircraft, helicopter and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturers around the world.
“Because of our confidence that we will receive FAA type certification for the G-300 within the year, we will be accepting advanced delivery pre-orders for the experimental version of both the G-200 and G-300 engines beginning at AERO Friedrichshafen,” Durr said. “We are already in active talks with a number of world-class aircraft overhaul facilities about obtaining FAA Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) for our engines on popular general aviation aircraft.”
For more information: Mistral-Engines.com
I also remember a project back in the 1980’s that was titled “Stratified Charge Omnivorous Rotary Engine” (SCORE). Was this the same as the John Deere project? I was very interested in this and have always thought the rotary engine was well suited for aircraft.
I too wish Mistral all the best.
I remember 25 years ago, in the mid 1980’s, John Deere Technologies International was working on a direct fuel-injected rotary engine for various applications. In the late 1980’s-early 90’s timeframe, I wrote a letter that was published in Business and Commercial Aviation magazine, in which I advocated rotary engines as an alternative to conventional piston and turbine engines, which would not require leaded avgas.
The JDTI engine never reached the production stage. I wish Mistral all the best with the G-300.