The design, function, and management of aero-engine magneto ignition systems has been a mainstay of primary aircraft training for decades. FAA Airman Knowledge Tests are replete with questions pertaining to magneto system design and function and student pilots, at this very moment, are turning keys and dogmatically conveying observed RPM drops to CFIs weary to death of Lycoming and Continental engine runups.
While reliable, magnetos aren’t particularly efficient—not by 21st Century standards, anyway. Such systems invariably fire the spark plugs they feed at 25° before Top Dead Center (TDC), relying upon the ignited combustion event’s self-perpetuation to reach maximum pressure by the time the piston reaches 11° to 17° degrees past TDC. Magnetos engender spark on the order of 12,000 volts—an acceptable but suboptimal output. What’s more, magnetos wear quickly, requiring inspection and often repair or replacement every five-hundred aircraft hours.
Comes now Electroair, a Waterford, Michigan-based purveyor of electronic ignition systems for reciprocating-engined aircraft. In 2005, the company acquired the inventory and designs of Mr. Jeff Rose, an experimenter who, in 1992, mounted ignition coils on an aluminum plate, added a Manifold Pressure (MAP) Sensor to measure air volume inside an engine, coupled a very accurate trigger mechanism for determining engine position, and brought it all under control with a circuit designed to control the spark event. The result of Mr. Rose’s tinkering was a high-energy, variable timed, fully-electronic ignition system by which piston aero-engines realized contemporaneous and significant increases in useful power and decreases in fuel consumption.
In 2009, after an arduous testing and proving process, Electroair was granted its first FAA STC for a general aviation aero-engine electronic ignition system. In the years since, the company has delivered over 3,500 experimental and 1,200 certificated aircraft electronic ignition systems.
In 2023, Electroair ignition systems are approved for use in over four-hundred aircraft models. What’s more, Electroair continues to expand approvals for its systems, adding ever more aircraft models and obtaining international certifications from regulatory agencies the likes of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Brazil’s Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC).
Electroair’s is the only certification to include both engines and airframes on the same STC. Typically, a system such as Electroair’s would be covered by two FAA-STCs—one for a given aircraft’s engine and a second for its powerplant. The single STC model reduces the complexities inherent making changes to the STCd component’s or system’s design or expanding the approved eligibility list there.
For purpose of better serving its customers, Electroair has established a number of guiding principles by which the company seeks to keep end user prices at a market-acceptable level. Among these is a comprehensive customer education initiative which unequivocally sets forth the advantages of electronic ignition systems.
Electroair has also developed a sizable and growing network of installation centers, the personnel of which are individually trained by Electroair to correctly and consistently install electronic ignition systems. Additionally, Electroair engages the general aviation community directly. By dint of a selective ad campaign directed at aircraft owners groups and popular GA publications, Electroair has fostered a broad industry presence. Beyond advertising, Electroair reaches the GA community directly by participating in aviation events at which the company hosts training forums to educate GA owners, operators, and maintainers vis-à-vis the virtues of electronic ignition systems and the extent to which aircraft performance and economy can be bettered by such.
Currently, Electroair offers electronic ignition STCs for four and six-cylinder Lycoming and Continental engines of the impulse and non-impulse coupled variations; as well as twin engine configurations comprising both standard and counter-rotating thrust models. STCd Continental engine models include: 360, 470, 520, 550, O-300 and GO-300, E-165, E-185, and E-225 series. STCd Lycoming models include: eE2, 235, 320, 360, 390, 540, 541, and 580 series.
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ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (05.02.24)
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