Little known fact about diesel aviation
 

Stalin swapped diesel engines into his bombers to strike back at Berlin after German forces bombed Moscow.

Soviet bombing raids

I remember hearing about this briefly on the old Discovery Wings show but I can't remember which episode it was.

I do have to say that that show was a VERY well done series!

Somehow I knew this would involve the Russians before I even opened the link. It just sounds like one of the out-of-the-box things they would do during that era.

Interesting reading. Thanks for posting it.

Actually the Germans were first: Junkers Ju 86 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
One of many hobbies is German World War Two aircraft, especially collecting and building 1/72 models though been a LONG time.

I was a bit surprised to hear that Cessna is selling a diesel engine version of the 182 Skylane. Runs on Jet-A fuel. They don't advertise it as a diesel, but if you Wiki the engine, that's exactly what it is. They claim 30~40% better fuel economy. Engine made in France.

Skylane JT-A

Vater had a private V.F.R. license so have some aviation interest, but been a long time since I was at the airport. Isn't Jet A considerably more then low lead? Though an interesting concept!

Yes, not too many months ago there was an article in "AOPA Pilot" about a diesel powered Cessna. Since new 182's cost something in the several hundred thousand dollar range these days, I did not pay much attention to the article.

Oddly enough jet a is less expensive than 100LL but not available at all small airports.

Does technology/trends not trickle down like in housing? Vater was saying there is a diesel Veryeasy. Maybe some day there will be more and powered by biodiesel.

I asked Vater and then qwerty posted the chart. What I think I was thinking of was the high cost to operate jet aircraft.

Makes sense it isn't as available as avgas, which is the same for mogas. I sure hope they keep the ethanol out of any gas going into aircraft and keep the ll. Just waiting for the later to change to ground private aviation. Vater was the one to mention it and told him there are too many pilots to happen right away. Though Meigs Airfield was done overnight...

NO ETHNOL ALLOWED in aviation fuel!

In fact a few years ago it was common to obtain an STC which is basically a legal modification, allowing legal use of auto gas (called mogas in the aircraft world) in some smaller general aviation engines. When the ethanol fuel came along this lost popularity since it became a hassle to find fuel free of ethanol.

As a result we are currently paying about $4.50 to $5.25 for 100LL. There is talk of eliminating 100LL. If that happens I am not sure what the result will be for general aviation.

I have a station that just opened up the road from me that sells ethanol free 87 octane. I began using it in my and my wife's gasser vehicles and it is worth it. 30 cents price difference as of today ($3.389 vs $3.089 for E10/87) but it returns several mpg more and it is not slowly killing my engine and fuel systems.

Another advantage of the diesel general aviation engine is the elimination of the possibility of CO poisoning.

Please elaborate. :D