by Paul Bertorelli

If the diesel age hasn’t fully dawned yet, the eastern sky is surely pinkening. Still, nothing new in general aviation is easy and that’s true of new engine initiatives such as the SMA diesel, which we first reported on three years ago. Since then, the project has gone through some eventful changes, including the near bankruptcy of the company building it.

But SMA has reorganized and appears revitalized. It’s looking for companies to develop STC conversions for Cessna 182s and we recently traveled to Montreal to inspect, photograph and fly an SMA installation in a Cessna 182Q. We first flew the engine two years ago in a Maule and…