New Diesel Engines On The Way for RV Builders

DeltaHawk published a short video of a recent test flight using a Van’s RV-14, giving builders and buyers a hint of what’s to come.

The test flight looks promising so far, and DeltaHawk is excited to offer builders some cutting-edge tech to finish off their build. They gave a little peek behind the curtain with a recent YouTube clip showing their RV-14 testing, and what we can see looks great so far.

“On the average mission," DeltaHawk said, "a jet-fueled DeltaHawk engine is up to 40% more efficient than an Avgas engine—improving range, increasing available payload and lowering cost of ownership. Multiple redundancies increase safety. And operating with widely available jet fuel, you can fly anywhere in the world without the worry of finding places to top off. But we didn’t stop there. Our engine’s small, aerodynamic profile allows an elegant cowl design with less drag, further increasing fuel efficiency. To do that, we literally turned the engine upside down. And ended up doing the same to an industry."

DeltaHawk drew a whole lot of eyes when it announced its new Jet-A-burning DKH engines, and managed to retain that attention when they announced their efforts to install them on nearly every light aircraft under the sun. The prospect of universally available, more affordable jet fuel was already a draw, but the addition of turbocharging (and supercharging!) and a full-on type certificate put the DHK series at the top of the shopping list for many pilots. DeltaHawk went on the warpath to offer compatible solutions - ‘Engine Propulsion Packages’, as they call them - for most popular Certified aircraft as an STC. That has been coming along nicely, with Cessnas and Pipers joining the DeltaHawk family as they work towards certification, but Van’s builders never had to deal with those STC headaches anyway.

But there’s still some more development to go, apparently, as there’s not yet an exact ETA for when builders can expect to order a DeltaHawk mill of their own. Additional specs are up in the air, too, with few specifics for this RV-14 published so far. It’s easily assumed that the DHK Engine will go toe-to-toe with most any equally sized AvGas unit, but hard numbers may be needed before many put down a down payment. Given how quickly they’ve been working on everything else, we shouldn’t wait long.

And... look for Jim's flight test report on this bird in just a few weeks... 

FMI: www.deltahawk.com