Paul,

Do you have any current information on Mistral's certification
program? The latest date on their website says they expected
certification of the G300 in 2009....


Josh


They appear to be out of biz.

Paul Lamar --

No, they are not out of bizz.

They presented their engines ar Aerofrederichhafen

They have two 300hp engines, in airplane version and in helicopter
version and they have two 200hp engines, airplane and helico

They are on the experimental market. Certified version are on the
back burner for the time. Also frozen is the JETA engines, waiting
for funding.

With the limited funds they have, they struggle to survive and get
additional funding. It is their priority.

This info comes from a reliable source in Switzerland, who is one of
the founders of Mistral. Philippe CHENEVIER

Did you go to Aero this year?

Are they selling parts? Gear boxes? Exhaust parts? Intake manifolds?
Seems that is an excellent way of making money. Also the customers
are willing to test the parts for free.

Do you have an email address for them?

If there is no way to contact them... in effect... they are out of
biz.

Paul Lamar


There is a market in the US for the Mistral gear box constant speed
prop version in particular.

Philippe , do you know if they are still getting subsidies from the
Swiss government? Having received that money are they not allowed to
move the manufacturing out of Switzerland?

It would make economic sense to move the company to the US and the
manufacturing to China like everybody else.

Who is in charge of the company now?

Paul Lamar


Guys,

Chatted with someone at mistral last week.... They told me they won't
sell just the parts.

It appears the want the whole package or nothing.

Not the greatest policy if you ask me. They have developed a great
product and the PSRU is a work of art. But not trying to make some
money with the work they have done makes no sense.

Plan to go to Geneva in June to check out their operation

Will Failing

That is insane! Why pay them $30,000 for a engine that is not as good
as a brand new $8,000 (retail) Mazda RX8 engine.

Let me know when they get a real businessman in charge :)

In the meantime forget Mistral.

Paul Lamar


Actually, if memory serves Mistral's retail pricing was pushing $60k
before they went belly up......okay, maybe belly side
ways.....edging to up.

I have the Mistral intake and super pleased to have licked onto
having proper timing to get it. (Even though the fuel rail design
seems to have been part of the reason for my engine shut down last
month at about 800 feet over the airport)

It seems Mistral has some talented engineers without solid business
sense (or maybe just socialist business sense....perhaps one in the
same). To have a seemingly known market niche in am already limited
market and dismiss such does not seem to be a good business route.

Chris Barber Houston Velocity N17010


The experiment aviation market is very fortunate and lucky to have a
low cost mass produced engine that is more durable than a $30,000
aircraft piston engine. They just don't know it yet.

The biz model that makes sense is buy the low cost engine from Mazda
and buy the parts to turn it into an aircraft engine from some one
else.


Paul Lamar


Mazada is selling new RX8 engines only??? Didn't they stop
production of the RX8 car line ?

George Curtis Jr

They still sell engines and will for the next ten years. I think it
is the law.


Paul Lamar

Does anybody have a rough price for the rx8 engine they could provide, just
tossing up what would be the cheapest way, complete rx8 and modify or
build-up from scratch.

 Mistral should look at the experimental market, that way they could start
selling with-out the hassles of certification requirements and have some
inservice testing at the same time. Maybe call it the "Breeze" for
experimentals. I agree that their business sense seems to be lacking. 60k
puts them in with the other cert. engine competition and are skipping the
opportunities available in the experimental market. Perhaps if they knew
the numbers on the newsletter they might have a different perspective, I'm
sure that a lot of builders would opt for it as an easy set-up option ready
to bolt in. Give a few props to choose from and the market would be there.
Smoothness power to weight, am I missing something here, what's the hold
up?
  Graeme Riley

They will never in a million years  get the FAA to certify an EFI
system. Lycoming has been trying for eight or ten years so far. If Lycoming
can't do it Mistral won't be able to do it. They should stick and aircraft
carb on it.

Also their engine is not good as an RX8 p-port. An RX8 p-port has
50 HP more for the same weight and it idles as well as a Mistral or
13B. A 3 rotor P-port is 375 HP and not only 300 HP. Again the same weight.

The side exhaust port is 20% more area with better timing.

Mistral is falling behind on rotary technology.

Paul Lamar

Stated in the above thread "There is a market in the US for the Mistral
gear box constant speed prop version in particular."  I did not see a
Patent listed for the Gear Box on the website by Mistral.  Paul can this
Gear Box be reverse engineered to be added to the P-Ported RX8 or 3 rotor
engines, etc. to make a experimental blueprint for home builders?

I think if a video series of complete build from scratch video tapes are
made showing all aspects of assembly (P-Porting, Gear Box build, Engine
Exhaust, Engine Mount, etc.) it can be sold to pay for development costs
and sure would further the cause for Rotary Engine aircraft adaptation.

George Curtis Jr.

Anything can be reverse engineered. All it takes is time and money.
Want to invest $10K ?

Paul Lamar

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