It’s been almost 20 years now that diesel technology has been a promising alternative for light general aviation, though the adoption of compression engines has taken longer and has suffered more teething pains than its proponents anticipated. I’ve had the chance to fly five different airplanes with four different diesel engines — the original Thielert, the Centurion 2.0, the Austro AE300 and the SMA SR305 — and my experience in every case was good, if not ideal.
Somewhat surprisingly, Redbird Flight Simulations has introduced a new diesel-engine airplane refurbishment project it calls the RedHawk, based on an existing Cessna Skyhawk. We flew the new airplane last week to see how well the concept works in the real world. Like Agent Mulder in The X Files with his belief in alien life, we want to believe in diesels, but can we?
