Continental Motors has received both its American and European supplemental Type Certificate (STC) by the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the Cessna 172 family of aircraft powered by the jet fuel diesel engine CD-155. The certification also includes the integration of the Garmin G1000.
The EASA STC allows the direct conversion of an avgas engine equipped 172 to Continental’s diesel powerplants. To display engine data for the R and S models, the integration of Garmin G1000 NAV III with Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is required.
The engines come with a lifetime of 2,100 hrs. and long maintenance intervals for improved cost of ownership, according to company officials.
Powered by the Continental Motors CD-155 diesel engine and a MTV-6-A/190 prop, the Cessna 172 cruises at a maximum speed of 135 KTAS at 8,000 feet, according to company officials.
Best economy cruise at that altitude is 109 KTAS, while burning 4.9 gph of Jet-A fuel vs. 8.1 gph with the traditional avgas engine powered version of the aircraft. Maximum rate-of-climb is 833 ft/min, still providing a 638 ft/min climb rate at 12,000 ft.
All models from Cessna 172 F to S have been validated by the FAA to get CD-135 and CD-155 diesel engine installations.
At last real fuel economy with a diesel engine in a former gasoline powered airplane with equal or better performance. If we converted most of our automotive engines to diesel the combined lowered fuel consumption would likely eliminate our dependence on foreign oil imports. I’ve seen similar comparative results with my farm tractors, one diesel powered and the other gasoline powered. The diesel engines typically last a lot longer than the gasoline engines before needing overhauls. Compression ignition eliminates all those well tuned ignition systems which have always required regular tune ups for best performance.
Remember at 2100 you have to remove this engine. It cannot be overhauled. It has a service life of only 2100 hours.
Ben what is the weight increase?