Diamond China announce its own 'independently designed' domestic aircraft diesel engine, the 'AEC2.0L'

[krellis]

A Chinese made knock off of an Austro diesel. Sign me up.

Hope these don’t become the TBR replacement engines down the road.

[CFIDave]

A Chinese made knock off of an Austro diesel. Sign me up.

How about an Austrian made knock off of a German Mercedes diesel?
(i.e., the core of Austro AE300/AE330 engines, ever since Austro used up its supply of Mercedes OM640 engines)

The quality of these engines might not be much different, especially given recent Austro issues. My Chinese-made iPhone is very high quality.

[TimS]

There is an old and trite phrase which applies to manufacturing in China.
You get what you pay for.

As Dave alluded too, if you are willing to pay like Apple is, you can get very high quality stuff out of China. You can also get junk, like the all the one wheel devices sold on Amazon that were catching fire.

Tim

[RookieFlyer]

A Chinese made knock off of an Austro diesel. Sign me up.

Hope these don’t become the TBR replacement engines down the road.

We're going to find out soon enough, for sure.

It's been over seven years in development from a clean sheet and looks designed to fit straight into an Austro form-factor with almost identical power, weight and performance. To me this would make good sense for a variety of reasons. Some external engine components appear placed quite differently to an Austro, but you could expect that from a new design intended from the outset to be an aeroengine, vs a 20-year-old Mercedes Benz design that was never intended to be an aeroengine.

Apparently, Chery provides a 10 year/1 million Km warranty on all their engines in their home market and are now exporting cars to 14 markets world-wide. Here in NZ, Chery along with BYD, GWM (formerly Great Wall Motors) and MG, are quickly becoming established brand names, although how they all stack up and support in the longer term we've yet to experience. Certainly, the Chinese are learning fast what is required to become a trusted brand like the Japanese car manufacturers did 35 or so years ago.

Bring it on the sooner the better I say. It'll let us know if it's worthy of our trust.

[krellis]

A Chinese made knock off of an Austro diesel. Sign me up.

How about an Austrian made knock off of a German Mercedes diesel?
(i.e., the core of Austro AE300/AE330 engines, ever since Austro used up its supply of Mercedes OM640 engines)

The quality of these engines might not be much different, especially given recent Austro issues. My Chinese-made iPhone is very high quality.

The Austrians are widely known as equal to their German engineer counterparts. Ferdinand Porsche was Austrian as I recall.

Agreed, the quality might not be much different. Hardly a resounding vote of confidence, as you said "given the recent Austro issues".

Your’s and my Chinese made iPhone is built by the millions and was designed in the U.S. - not reverse engineered by the Chinese likely stealing Austro IP. Not a fair comparison.

[RookieFlyer]

The Austrians are widely known as equal to their German engineer counterparts. Ferdinand Porsche was Austrian as I recall.

Agreed, the quality might not be much different. Hardly a resounding vote of confidence, as you said "given the recent Austro issues".

Then again, the new engine design will have benefitted greatly from vastly more powerful CAD engineering tools including engine dynamics and metallurgical/materials stress analysis. I'm pleased a serious and likely very well-resourced attempt is being made. No doubt the Chinese got a stealthy bargain in acquiring Diamonds IP, however I doubt that if Diamond had stayed in western hands, it would have attracted the investment to develop a new engine on its own.

[Boatguy]

Wouldn’t this engine need to be certified before being used in any EASA/TC/FAA certified airplane?

[ememic99]

Wouldn’t this engine need to be certified before being used in any EASA/TC/FAA certified airplane?

Absolutely. Which won’t happen. At least not soon. Or ever.

[RookieFlyer]

Wouldn’t this engine need to be certified before being used in any EASA/TC/FAA certified airplane?

The way I read it is that at least EASA have so far begun building a trust relationship with the Chinese aviation administration and certification organizations with the intent of eventually bringing them into the fold.

Let's face it, China is quickly gaining industrial and technical might in so many areas, and at a scale and cost effectiveness that leaves over-priced western economies in the dust. Witness the recent onslaught of automobile sales out of China. Those vehicles have to meet the safety standards of the testing authorities in the countries they sell to, and in most cases are now easily gaining five-star ratings.

Chinese Aviation (including GA) is on the cusp of similar a boom and I believe that's where much of the future development and volume is going to ome from. EASA and the FAA would have to have their heads up their arses if they thought the status quo. of the last 30 years was going to continue as it has.

The other key point is that the CCP is extensively involved in investing for economic expansion through its state-owned businesses. Chery and CETC Diamond are both state-owned and therefore have the leveridge of the CCP working with their western counterparts to ease the paths for any certifications needed outside of China.

The old US/Eurocentric era of dominance and control is nearly over. Once the US dollar loses its prime reserve currency status, EASA and the FAA better be holding hands with the Chinese, nicely.

[ememic99]

...over-priced western economies... The old US/Eurocentric era of dominance and control is nearly over.

We still earn our bread in these over-priced western economies and Chinese won't give us any. This situation is the result of shortsighted run-for-profit and must-growth policy in years when production was transferred to China. Now we suffer the consequences and we could've lived peacefully with less profit, less growth, less money in the pockets of world's richest people and more industry in USA and Europe. However, this game is far from being over and Chinese dominance is not coming. Their economy is in deep problems at the moment, cheap labor is not cheap anymore and they will struggle to regain momentum.