ADEPT Airmotive Nearing First Flight of 320T Engine

I wrote last December about a South African aircraft called the SA Ravin 500. It has some pretty impressive performance numbers, but they are hoping to pair their plane with a new motor that will let them completely revolutionize the 4-place piston market.

According to South Africa's TimesLive.co.za, that motor, ADEPT Airmotive's 320T, underwent taxi tests on an SA Ravin 500 Monday and they are planning on flying it very soon!

This new motor will be truly revolutionary. It can run on biofuel or liquid petroleum gas...for the recent taxi test it ran plain old unleaded gasoline (aka MOGAS.) If for no other reason, the ability to run on something other than 100LL is a huge bonus with this engine. Lycoming and Continental are scrambling to find alternative fuels or make their current motors run on something other than 100LL as we start to hear rumors of traditional avgas going away. They're on track with their biggest, newest, most expensive motors, but they have thousands of smaller engines out on the market that still have no good alternative. If aircraft manufacturers had the option of a good engine that could run on available fuels, I think the current big names in aviation powerplants would be in some trouble.

Having said that, there are a lot of other benefits to this new motor. According to ADEPT Airmotive's press release, the 320T has very low emissions levels. That might make this motor more attractive in European countries that tax pilots based on engine emissions. Not only is this a clean engine, it is supposedly 30% more efficient than equivalent motors. That'll be attractive to environmentally conscious operators and people just looking to spend less on fuel altogether.

Better still, the 320T only weights 158 kg, or about 350 pounds. That's 50-100 pounds lighter than the equivalent engines currently on the market. That will make a huge difference for manufacturers and owners. Those kinds of weight savings could be the difference in allowing an owner to get a plane with air conditioning, flight into known icing (FIKI) equipment, or to just plan on carrying more bags or an extra hour of fuel wherever they go.

It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? It seems to me that ADEPT Airmotive is doing things the right way though. They're still in the development phase and it'll be a couple years at least before we could see any kind of certified 320T in the US. However, as soon as it gets here I think it will shake up the aircraft engine market significantly.

Then, when an SA Ravin 500 paired with this engine hits the US market, people will be looking at a piston single that can carry over 700 pounds of people and bags for 2000 nm at cruise speeds approaching 200 knots. That kind of efficiency and performance would completely change the way we gauge piston performance. It's exciting to think about!

Congrats to ADEPT Airmotive on your successful testing so far. I'm looking forward to hearing about how flight testing goes. Good luck!