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

Does anyone know what trouble they ran into with the certification
process? I'm curious why no one else has tried to certify a rotary
for GA.

Josh


To get true FAA certification you must be the manufacture of all the
parts and provide a paper trail from the mine to the air on each
part. Mazda would be unwilling to provide that paper trail.

That cost a lot of money. The other thing was the EFI specifications
were too ambitious. If they had stuck an aircraft carb and aircraft
magnetos on it.... certification would have been a lot easier.

The basic Mazda engine will go through the 150 hour certification
schedule and then some no problem unlike any automotive piston
engine.


Paul Lamar


Paul,

I understand that Mazda would never be able to provide a paper trail like
that, but what's to stop someone from basically copying their engine and
producing it in such a way to satisfy the FAA?  I know there's a lot of
work to be done in the certification process, and it would take a lot of
capital investment... but if a business case can be made for it, I'm sure
the capital can be found.  The engine could be sold in certified and
experimental versions... the experimental one could help fund the
certification effort.

In theory, couldn't one outsource all the fabrication if they wanted so
long as the people outsourced to are up to FAA standards and can provide
that material paper trail?  I've worked for several different aircraft
manufacturers, and they ALL outsource a lot of their parts these days.  I'm
currently living in Wichita, and I'm sure there are plenty of machine shops
around that could handle most of the fabrication.

As far as fuel injection... you're right, it would be easiest to start out
with a carb.  Maybe we could use something like this in combination with a
magneto to gain back some performance:
http://www.electroair.net/stc_ignition_kit.html  after the initial
certification, it'd be easier to move towards a mechanical injection like
most IO's are now.

I think I'll do some reading in the FAR's to see what's required to certify
an engine.

Josh






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