What engine would you like?

Dan Luke wrote:

"Mike Rapoport" wrote:

What I want is a turbo diesel. ...Air cooling would be nice for
simplicity.


Do you know of successful air cooled turbo diesel applications? Would'nt you
be asking for thermal distribution problems in such an engine, along with the
large mechanical tolerances required to deal with them?

I don't know of any in aircraft, but I believe at least one Ag company
had an air cooled diesel (I want to say Deutz, but am not 100% sure).
The biggest problem is making a diesel that is both robust and the same
weight as an equivalent power gasoline engine. The high compression
required for auto ignition comes at a significant penalty in either
weight or reliability ... and most of us want our airplane engines to be
reliable so you pay in weight.


Matt