On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:15:11 +0000, David Lesher wrote:

Well, if "old" Diesels made sense for GA use, you'd a thunk there would
be lots by now. There don't seem to be.

My understanding is that this has, until recently, been a weight issue.

[...]

There are real issues with starting over, and ignoring everything other

But there's a great deal of space between retasking and "starting over,
and ignoring everything other people found out The Hard Way". So this is
something of a strawman argument.

[...]

There are significant advantages to engines that run closed-loop, and
FADEC control systems add others. Yes, it's best to have zero single
points of failure in any design, be it a Bonanza or a highway bridge,
[or flywheels] but that's not always possible.

This appears to me to be another strawman. Sure, zero SPOF is not always
possible. But how does that impact the goal of minimizing the SPOF?
Your later comments about granite cumulus would appear to be of the same
sort. Hyperbole, perhaps?

[...]

(The alternative, by the way, is where GA is now -- 1950's technology
holds forth; outside of the avionics, and it run on 1960-design
alternators.)

This might also be explained by the size of the market. Also, don't
ignore the "pause" imposed by the liability issue. Now that small GA is
"moving again" we are seeing innovation. Avionics has been getting a lot
of attention over the past few years thanks to advancements in
electronics, and it appears that we're now seeing the result of evolution
in the engine market.

- Andrew