Barry Gardner wrote:

Paul,

For your interest, from today's AVWEB newsflash. Either Continental has learned that it lacks the
expertise to make other kinds of engines (perhaps from its experience during the diesel NASA
grant) or it's looking to take someone else's money now that the NASA grant is through. Is that
too cynical?

Barry Gardner
Wheaton, IL


A New Generation?

TCM, Honda Join Forces In GA Engine Project...

     On Monday, Teledyne Continental Motors (TCM) and Honda Motor Co. announced
     they will join forces to study the feasibility of producing a next-generation
     piston aircraft engine for the GA market. Honda says it has developed a prototype piston
     engine with "the technical potential for being significantly advanced over currently
     available engines in terms of weight, fuel efficiency, power output and emissions." The
     water-cooled, four-cylinder engine is designed to run on unleaded auto gas, Honda
     spokesman Jeffrey Smith told AVweb yesterday. "The engine is undergoing bench-testing
     now," he said, "and will have its first test flight soon." The aircraft it will fly in
     is yet to be determined, Smith said. The TCM/Honda joint study will "evaluate potential
     business opportunities for both parties to work together toward marketing, servicing,
     manufacturing and identifying potential product launch customers for the engine." The
     announcement follows approximately two years of testing of the prototype Honda-designed
     piston aviation engine at TCM's facility in Mobile, Ala. Of course, TCM is no stranger
     to aircraft engines, as it has offered new and re-manufactured engines, ignition systems
     and spare parts for the GA industry for many years. Honda is the world's largest engine
     manufacturer, Smith said.

...As Car Makers Try To Sprout Wings

     While TCM has long been a household name in aviation, the same can't be said for
     Honda -- though that could be changing. As AVweb previously reported, Honda in
     recent years has worked on several GA powerplant designs, including piston, turboprop,
     and turbofan engines. Since 2000, the company has also been researching and developing
     more cost-effective piston aviation engines. And Honda is not the only Japanese car
     maker exploring the market for winged transportation devices. Toyota flew its Toyota
     Advanced Aircraft (TAA) project successfully last fall, albeit amid a shroud of secrecy.
     Will Honda be building an airplane of its own to wrap around that cute little engine?
     Spokesman Smith had no comment on that yesterday. What we do know is that the GA market
     has attracted some serious interest -- and potentially, serious competition. AVweb's
     Paul Bertorelli provided some insight into the Japanese interest in GA manufacturing in
     an article published last September.

          NOTE: Read the complete text of Honda's press release.

Continental already builds a four cylinder water cooled aircraft engine.
It went around the world un refueled non stop in the Rutan Voyager.
I doubt seriously whether Honda can come up with significant improvements.
Perhaps one or two percentage points here and there. Yet another piston
engine is going to do nothing. On the other hand the rotary has the 
potential of greatly reducing the life of an aircraft engine while
at the same time reducing the initial cost. With turbo compounding
it could also increase the aircraft's range by 20% and reduce the cost 
of fuel by 20%.

The big Honda contribution if any will be marketing money. IMHO the aviation
industry has so much inertia that extensive increases in marketing expenditures  
will not pay off. The key is getting more people to learn to fly and improving 
the availability of real time low cost weather information in the cockpit 
to make flying safer. IMHO what needs to be done is have the FAA transmit 
real time weather maps on unused UHV TV stations around the country. That 
way a low cost commercial portable TV set can be used in the cockpit to 
provide real time weather info to the pilot. Then PERHAPS the market will 
increase for a Honda aircraft engine but I doubt it :) People have a 
perception that flying is dangerous and it is for most people. It takes 
good judgment and common sense to survive and those are rare commodities
in the human condition :)

None of this will happen in less than a twenty year  to thirty year time 
frame if started right now. I don't see it starting. The EAA should be
at the fore front of this work but instead they are sponsoring the
largely unsuccessful Young Eagle program and focused on grubbing money
and expanding their infrastructure at OSH. They are also discouraging
the development of the Wankel rotary engine by not providing insurance. 

Paul Lamar

 
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