The Diemech TP 100 is an American
turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
and
turboshaft
A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
that was under development by
Diemech Turbine Solutions of
DeLand, Florida in 2012.
By June 2017 the company website had been taken down and it is likely that the company is out of business and engine development ended.
Design and development
The TP 100 was developed from an engine developed by
PBS Velká Bíteš
Prvni brnenska strojirna Velka Bites, a. s. ("First Brno Engineering Plant", known as PBS VB) is a Czech Republic, Czech engineering and manufacturing company. It focuses mainly on the development, testing, and production of devices for the airc ...
of the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
for use in
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s. The design goal was to provide an engine that could run on globally available fuels, such as
Jet-A or
ultra-low-sulfur diesel
Ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) is diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur content. Since 2006, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America has been of a ULSD type.
The move to lower sulfur content allo ...
, given the disappearance of
avgas
Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, w ...
in most parts of the world.
The TP 100 develops and weighs plus accessories.
The engine was expected to produce a
specific fuel consumption of 0.82 lb/hph (0.5 kg/kWh), yielding a cruise fuel flow of per hour which would have been 52% more than the equivalent piston engine, the
Lycoming IO-540, which produces the same power at a SFC of 0.45, burning per hour. In examining these numbers AVweb editor Paul Bertorelli stated that this "illuminates the harsh fact that turbine engines just aren't as efficient as piston engines and the smaller the turbines are, the less efficient they are".
The company had planned to work with PBS to obtain
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
certification
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
in the US. The engine was expected to fly first in mid-2013 on a
Van's Aircraft RV-10 testbed,
but development ended before the engine was flown.
By 2022 PBS Velká Bíteš was offering the TP 100 for sale as the non-certified
PBS TP100 Turboprop Engine "for small aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles".
Specifications (TP 100)
References
{{Reflist
External links
Official website archiveon
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
2010s turboprop engines