A New Jersey flying club took a gamble in converting its Skylane to diesel power. An early assessment suggests it will pay off.

By Paul Bertorelli

Think of it: If you had an aircraft engine that burned two to three gallons less than the competition, delivered the same horsepower, weighed more or less the same and burned fuel that isn’t threatened with extinction, as 100LL is, wouldn’t you sell the hell out of it? You’d think so.

But while SMA, the French daughter of aerospace giant SAFRAN, has such an engine in the SR305 aerodiesel, buying

Paramus Flying Club’s SMA-converted Cessna 182 delivers dramatically better fuel economy over the stock O-470. Giant and unmistakable placards on fuel fillers moved one nervous lineman to comment, “This feels so wrong.”

one is at best a rarified experience. There aren’t many of these engines flying, so judging their merits has been largely a paper exercise. …