HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Technify Motors GmbH is an
aircraft Diesel engine An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...
manufacturer based in
Sankt Egidien Sankt Egidien (Saint Egidien) is a municipality in the district of Zwickau in Saxony in Germany. History The town was named after Saint Giles, allegedly for missionary work done by him or his disciples to the Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿 ...
, Germany. In July 2013, Chinese state-owned
Aviation Industry Corporation of China Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
(AVIC) acquired the aircraft Diesel engine designs and manufacturing assets of the former Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH and added them to the Continental Motors Group as Technify Motors GmbH. The 5,000th engine was delivered in April 2017 after 15 years of production, accumulating more than 5.25 million flying hours and equipping over 2,750 aircraft.


History

Thielert AG was a German financial holding company that has owned engine development and manufacturing companies. It was headquartered in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
. Companies owned were Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH with sites in
Lichtenstein, Saxony Lichtenstein is a town in the Zwickau district, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated 11 km northeast of Zwickau, and 22 km southwest of Chemnitz. It was owned by the House of Schönburg A house is a single-unit residential building. ...
and
Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
,
Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. Thielert AG was quoted on the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (german: link=no, Börse Frankfurt, former German name – FWB) is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Locat ...
and was a member of the
SDAX The SDAX (German abbreviation for ''Small-Cap-deutsche Aktienindex'') is a stock market index composed of 70 small and medium-sized companies in Germany. These so-called ' small caps' rank directly below the MDAX (mid-cap) shares in terms of o ...
. Founded in 1989, turnover increased from
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
3.3 million in 1997 to €16.2 million in 2002, while employees grew from 27 to 112; Thielert Aircraft Engines was founded in 1999 to adapt Diesel engine for
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
, entered Centurion 1.7 serial production in 2002 and had 86 employees in 2003. The main operating unit, Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH, declared insolvency on 24 April 2008 and was then run by an insolvency administrator, Bruno M. Kübler. The holding company, Thielert AG, also filed insolvency a week later on 30 April 2008 after the loss of its operational unit, Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH. The holding company ceased operations in autumn of 2008. It was sold in July 2013 to Continental Motors, a subsidiary of
Aviation Industry Corporation of China Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
(AVIC).


Insolvency

On 6 March 2008 Thielert's financial statements for 2003, 2004 and 2005 were nullified by a
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
court, on the basis that the company had breached valuation provisions. As a result of these events the company's stock dropped to a record low of €0.36 from previous highs of €25.22 on the German stock market. On 23 April 2008 it was announced that the company Board of Directors had dismissed "with cause" company founder Frank Thielert and also cancelled his employment contract, due to evidence found during a criminal investigation by the Hamburg Office of Criminal Investigation. The allegations included that false invoices had been written, which were used to boost accounts receivable and create the appearance of a better financial position for the company. The board also dismissed Chief Financial Officer Roswitha Grosser and sold off €24.4 million to cover immediate financial requirements. In April 2008 a stockholder restructuring plan was put on hold and as a result on 24 April 2008 Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH, responsible for all engine production, filed for insolvency at the Chemnitz County Court. As the situation deepened, the Thierlert board stated on 26 April 2008: "The going concern of Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH can only be ensured permanently by restructuring activities with the support of investors, due to the fact that the Holding Thielert AG is not capable to do so anymore." The company announced that it would name a new executive board and an interim insolvency trustee. In April 2008
Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing c ...
suspended plans to sell a Diesel-equipped Cessna 172TD as a result of the insolvency. On 1 May 2008 the board appointed a new CEO, lawyer Marcel Kleib and lawyer Achim Ahrendt of
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
was appointed to oversee the insolvency proceedings. On 5 May 2008 bankruptcy administrator attorney Bruno M. Kubler issued a letter to company customers indicating that the business would continue to operate producing engines and parts, meet existing orders, to preserve its capability to reorganize. On 14 May 2008 Thielert announced that it would no longer honor existing engine warranties for engines installed in Diamond Aircraft and also dramatically increased the price of parts. Owners who required warranty work were required to pay cash in advance for parts. This announcement caused an immediate negative reaction from
Diamond DA42 The Diamond DA42 Twin Star is a four seat, twin engine, propeller-driven airplane developed and manufactured by the People's Republic of China, Chinese-owned, Austria-based company Diamond Aircraft Industries. It was Diamond's first twin engin ...
owners and also from Diamond Aircraft. On 18 June 2008 the company announced that it was resuming production of all its Diesel engine products, with a production target of 80 units per month. Thielert guaranteed the new engines against defective materials and labor, but parts prices remained at the previously announced high levels. On 10 July 2008 Diamond Aircraft announced that it was dropping out of the bidding to purchase Thielert, citing that Thielert withheld key information "vital to the due diligence process", although Thielert disagreed. On Friday 11 July 2008, Thielert issued a press release stating: "the reasons Diamond is presenting for its non-participation are clearly pretext". Thielert implied that Diamond was not a serious prospective buyer and that "Diamond's actions clearly serve the purpose of derogating Thielert's reputation in the naive assumption to be able to subsequently purchase Thielert far under value." As part of its insolvency, Thielert indicated that it would not honor warranties or inspect and replace life-limited parts as was the case when the engines were sold to customers. This change in policy has resulted in Thielert-powered aircraft being grounded or no longer economically viable to fly. In November 2008 Diamond Aircraft CEO Peter Maurer said the insolvency commissioner responsible for Thielert's restructuring has come to understand that the eventual sale of the company will depend on product support. This led to Thielert reducing the cost of parts and actively working on extending inspection and replacement requirements for gearbox clutches as well as other parts. In January 2009, Bruno M. Kübler, Thielert's insolvency administrator announced that the company was, "in the black and working to capacity". On 6 April 2009 the company announced that insolvency administrator had "transferred the company's operative new business to a company that is unaffected by the insolvency proceedings". The new company,
Centurion Engines The Thielert Centurion is a series of Diesel cycle aircraft engines for general aviation originally built by Thielert, which was bought by Aviation Industry Corporation of China's Tecnify Motors subsidiary and is currently marketed by Conti ...
, is responsible for worldwide sales of Centurion Diesel engines and spare parts. At the end of November 2010 the company was making a profit and actively seeking new investors. Kübler indicated that major lending institutions have loosened credit enough that investment is more likely than it was in 2008 or 2009. Frank Thielert was arrested and jailed in mid-June 2013 as a flight risk, by a German bankruptcy court judge. In 2016 Thielert was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud in misrepresenting the value and financial position of the company during attempts to find buyers and investors. On 23 July 2013 the company was sold to
Continental Motors, Inc. Continental Aerospace Technologies is an aircraft engine manufacturer located at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was originally spun off from automobile engine manufacturer Continental Motors Company in 1929 and own ...
Continental is owned by AVIC International, which is, in turn, wholly owned by the
Government of the People's Republic of China The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, mili ...
. Thielert was renamed ''Technify Motors GmbH''. Continental uses Chinese investment to continue development of the company's products, with an emphasis on extending gearbox inspection periods initially.


Products

Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH was well known as the manufacturer of the
Centurion A centurion (; la, centurio , . la, centuriones, label=none; grc-gre, κεντυρίων, kentyríōn, or ) was a position in the Roman army during classical antiquity, nominally the commander of a century (), a military unit of around 80 ...
range of aircraft Diesel engines that run on
jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...
. Two engine models were built, the Centurion 2.0 with a power output of either 135 hp (101 kW) and the Centurion 2.0s with 155 hp (116 kW). The development of the third model, a 350 hp (261 kW) Centurion 4.0, was not completed. A fourth model, the 230 hp (172 kW) Centurion 3.2 was announced for 2008, but its final development was cancelled. New built aircraft equipped with Thielert Centurion engines include: *
Diamond DA40 Diamond Star The Diamond DA40 Diamond Star is an Austrian four-seat, single-engine, light aircraft constructed from composite materials. Built in both Austria and Canada, it was developed as a four-seat version of the earlier DA20 by Diamond Aircraft ...
(Centurion 2.0) *
Diamond DA42 Twin Star The Diamond DA42 Twin Star is a four seat, twin engine, propeller-driven airplane developed and manufactured by the Chinese-owned, Austria-based company Diamond Aircraft Industries. It was Diamond's first twin engine design, as well as the f ...
(Centurion 2.0) *
Apex Aircraft Apex Aircraft was a French company devoted to light aeroplane manufacture. It markets three ranges of light aircraft which it brands Robin, Alpha and CAP. The "Robin" range is the former Avions Robin DR400 4-seater aircraft of wooden construction ...
's
Robin DR400 The Robin DR400 is a wooden sport monoplane, conceived by Pierre Robin and Jean Délémontez. The Robin DR400 first flew in 1972 and is still in production. The current model is designated 'DR401'. It has a tricycle undercarriage and can carry ...
135 CDI Ecoflyer (Centurion 2.0) * Cessna 172 Skyhawk TD (Centurion 2.0 S) — Development suspended May 2008 Kits for the installation of retrofit Thielert engines exist for a number of aircraft, including the
Piper PA-28 Cherokee The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of two-seat or four-seat light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft and designed for flight training, air taxi and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 62–64. Werner & Werner Corp, ...
and the
Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.
for the Centurion 2.0. A Thielert Centurion 2.0 engine also powers an
unmanned aerial vehicle 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 ...
, the General Atomics Warrior, an upgraded version of the
General Atomics MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ( ...
. A third field of activity is contract engine development and manufacture of engine parts for
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
s and small series for the automotive industry.


References


External links

* * * {{official website, URL=http://www.continentalmotors.aero/diesel/diesel-engines.aspx, name=Diesel engines at Continental Motors Group Aircraft engine manufacturers of Germany Manufacturing companies based in Hamburg