Username Protected wrote:
What baffled me was how a modern carbon fiber retract only does 180 knots at 16,000 feet with a 300 hp engine. My 40-year old antique of an A36 will do 195 kts at the same altitude with a 1,000+ nm range compared to 750 nm for this plane.
Why is it so slow and range-limited? Maybe the diesel but trucks don't suffer the same performance penalty.
its engine has too little power and is heavier for the hp available. go look at the specs for the CD300 from continental it has far lower power than the engine you have and it derates a lot as you go to altitude. if it had the same engine as the cirrus has, it would go a lot faster and carry a lot more. because of the weight of the engine (a diesel of this category will weigh in the order of 200 lbs more than the equivalent hp 100LL engine). it needs 400 hp or more with the altitude performance of developing at least 300 hp at 20,000 It would be a spectacular aircraft with the EPS engine.
heavy fuel (jet A) is the only available reliable quality to go anywhere in the world and thus Diamond had to use the only diesel available at this time that would make it fly without spending the money on a turbine and accepting the 2X fuel burn.
think TBM 700 with turbine characteristics for a turbine version.
the 420 hp diesel EPS was developing (now being developed by General Atomics for drone use and perhaps general aviation) would make up the weight difference in less fuel usage in 2 hours or so compared to the same capability 100 LL engine.
