SMA’s 230-HP SR305 diesel is intended to burn Jet-A. The company plans a 300-HP variant from the same basic block.

-by Greg Travis

Hidden away in a nondescript corporate office park in an eastern suburb of Paris is a venture aiming to turn the general aviation engine marketplace on its ear. Society Mechanique d’Aviation (SMA) was born here seven years ago with one goal: to make piston engines for general aviation that would run on the same fuel that Air France puts into its Airbuses.

As if to showcase its global ambitions, SMA’s facilities would be at home in any one of the thousands of disposable corporate office parks throughout the U.S. There’s no old-world charm here, no narrow streets with pushcart vendors, no architecture. It’s all about form, function and the…