DeltaHawk Engines

AirVenture 2026: DeltaHawk Shows More Engines, Applications
AvBrief

I'm surprised I haven't heard of this outfit before. 'First clean-sheet airplane engine design in 60 years' or something like that. Saw the phrase on the DeltaHawk Engines website, but I lost my place and I can't find it now.

The engines are turbo-super-charged, two-stroke diesels. They are aluminum and water cooled. They run on jet-fuel, which kind of makes sense, the amount of fuel jets throw away (like when they are overweight coming in for a landing) probably dwarfs the amount of fuel recreational pilots use. I like 100 octane avgas, just on account of I like gasoline engines. I'm not keen on diesels, they're noisy and they smell. I suppose gasoline engines smell as well, but I like that smell. I don't like the smell of diesel fuel.

With the turbo-super-charging and the water cooling, they need a whole lot of external plumbing for both air and water. There is going to be an intercooler for the output of the turbocharger on it's way to the engine intake. I wonder if you need a second intercooler for the supercharger. That would make it really complicated.

Anyway, good on them for creating a new engine and bringing it to market. They want $110,000 for four cylinder, but I think that's a complete drive package - i.e. everything from the firewall forward.

I'm wondering who they are going to sell these too. They need a sizeable market in order to make this project worth-while, and I don't think the eleventy-eleventy home builders are going to be enough. But then there are all kinds of puddle jumper airlines all over the world, and they would probably love to have these engines.