Jaunt Air

For more than thirty-five years after the Wright brothers first flight, all airplanes were powered by piston engines. Though there have been many variations of the piston engine, all have operated on the same basic principle of reciprocating pistons producing power that turned a propeller. The flight of the first jet airplane in 1939 signaled the coming end of the piston engines dominance, but for a number of years the piston engine remained the primary aviation powerplant, particularly in civil aviation. The peak of large piston engine development occurred in the 1950s with the huge radial turbo-compound engines that powered the last of the piston-powered large bombers and airliners. But as the piston engine has faded to near extinction among military and large transport airplanes, it has retained its position of dominance among small general aviation airplanes. Some of the more recent developments and refinements in piston engine technology include:

• FADEC: Piston engines are complicated pieces of machinery, a fact that is reflected in the complexity of operating them. Pilots must adjust as necessary the throttle, mixture control and propeller control, and must monitor the cylinder head temperatures, the exhaust gas temperature, the manifold pressure, the oil pressure, the oil temperature and fuel flow. Jet engines, in fact, are considerably simpler to operate, and place less of a workload on the pilot. FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) utilizes a computer to manage the mixture and propeller controls, greatly reducing the workload placed on the pilot. FADEC essentially simplifies the operation of the engine to where the pilot only has to adjust the throttle when increasing or decreasing power; everything else is taken care of by the FADEC unit. And in addition to simplifying the operation of a piston engine, FADEC also optimizes the power output and efficiency of the engine, while also ensuring that all temperature and pressure parameters are maintained at optimum levels for the health of the engine. Though FADEC units are currently offered by only a few manufacturers, the use of them is expected to gradually become much more prevalent.
• Diesel Engines: With the high and ever-rising cost of fuel, any alternative that may reduce fuel consumption is worth consideration. Diesel engines are known to be generally more efficient and durable than gasoline-powered piston engines, but since diesels tend to be heavier than a gasoline engine with an equivalent power output, they have not been used extensively as aviation power plants. But with recent advances both in design and materials, several manufacturers are developing diesels that may actually exceed the weight-to-power efficiency of gasoline-powered engines. These advances, along with the efficiency and durability of the diesel, may soon give diesel engines a significant share of the piston engine market in general aviation.