Aircraft New Aircraft

Cessna’s New Diesel: SMA SR305’s OEM Debut

If SMA’s Jet-A burning piston powerplant looked promising when it appeared in 1998, it soon became the little engine that couldn’t. A decade ago, interest in aerodiesels was lukewarm at best and SMA found no major OEM takers, either. But at AirVenture 2012 this year, Cessna’s announcement to offer the SMA diesel in the Skylane might finally get the SR305 out of the starting blocks. We knew Cessna was interested in diesel engines because two years ago, then-CEO Jack Pelton told us the company had tested all of the above-ground diesels, which included the Thielert and SMA offerings and we’re sure they at least examined the Austro and Delta-Hawk. Although it seems obvious why Cessna picked the SMA in hindsight, it wasn’t always that way.

Paul Bertorelli
Verified

If SMA’s Jet-A burning piston powerplant looked promising when it appeared in 1998, it soon became the little engine that couldn’t. A decade ago, interest in aerodiesels was lukewarm at best and SMA found no major OEM takers, either. But at AirVenture 2012 this year, Cessna’s announcement to offer the SMA diesel in the Skylane might finally get the SR305 out of the starting blocks.

We knew Cessna was interested in diesel engines because two years ago, then-CEO Jack Pelton told us the company had tested all of the above-ground diesels, which included the Thielert and SMA offerings and we’re sure they at least examined the Austro and Delta-Hawk. Although it seems obvious why Cessna picked the SMA in hindsight, it wasn’t always that way.

Paul Bertorelli

Paul Bertorelli is Aviation Consumer’s Editor at Large. In addition to his valued contributions to Aviation Consumer, his in-depth video productions on sister publication AVweb cover a wide variety of topics that greatly contribute to safety, operation and aircraft ownership. When Paul isn’t writing or filming, he’s out flying his J3 Cub.