Continental reports two milestones for its Jet-A piston engine series: The jet-fuel burning piston engine family has accumulated more than 10 million flight hours, while the CD-170 engine has received a Time Between Replacement (TBR) extension from 1,200 to 1,800 hours from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
When the CD-170 launched in 2020 with a TBR of 1,200 hours, Continental officials committed to increasing the TBR. Continental prioritized this development project, knowing it would provide additional value to owners, officials noted.
Continental Jet-A piston engines are available in select new certified aircraft from Tecnam, Diamond, and Piper. In addition, the CD-100 series is also available in a Standard Type Certificate (STC) retrofit kit for various aircraft, such as Cessna 172 and older Piper PA-28s, where it only takes 21 days to upgrade your standard engine to a new Jet-A engine, company officials said.
Comparing the CD-170 to an IO-360.
170 hp vs 210, 200
344 lb vs 294 TCM, Lyc 314
at 1800 hr, buy a new engine [TBR,] vs 1,800-2,200 TBO, and can top with cylinders, and keep flying.
I’ll keep flying my gasser, and with G100UL soon.!
Looking forward to more.
Positive step. Not nearly enuff. I cude replace my 1910 tech O-520 with a?state of the?art, way more proven than this LS3 that makes 525 hp on my 182. Because I use it for skydiving, the FAA says “No”. Ridiculous
Shortt term profit.U.S. corporatists are lazy and greedy.They don’t see as far as the lengths of their noses.They’ve sold the rope upon which all(including themselves)U.S. citizens will be hanging.
This is good news. The future for aircraft engines will be owned by those that can burn diesel or Jet-A, or those that burn Mogas. Boutique fuels will be simply too expensive for most to afford. These German Thielert (aka Continental) engines take advantage of both the mass production of Mercedes diesel engines with Bosch fuel supply systems, and diesel / Jet-A fuels (nearly identical). The only way to lower the cost of GA is to exploit mass production elsewhere. The unfortunate aspect of any engine from Continental is that the Communist Chinese own them and could turn off the spigot at any time. What is the price for these Conti Jet-A engines? That is the other huge factor. Lycoming has increased prices by 30% in the past few years, making the cost of new aircraft even more difficult for most. It would be great to see Jan Eggenfelner enter the Type Certificated aircraft engine business. I suspect he would quickly gain significant market share.
Yes, the number one question is how much will this cost, but so many write ups just seem to forget that little bit of info.
Would like this for my 1968 c 150-H
As I am coming up for overhaul in 400.00 hours , do you need a test bed aircraft. For evaluation, I think this would be a great replacement engine
Steve
This is good news; these engines also achieve better specific fuel consumption (lower cost of jet A and better specific fuel burn is a real win, along with eliminating avgas lead), and there is the potential for easy-to-produce net-zero-carbon fuels: Dimethyl Ether (DME), biodiesel, and simply piggybacking on net-zero Jet-A substitutes as they become available.
But early experience with these engines was not happy for many owners; some engines not making it to 1200 hours, and many needing much more work than the typical well-developed traditional engine at 1800. It will take some time for owners and engine rebuilders to come to trust the improved lifespan and life-cycle costs… If really achieved.