Review of the Diamond DA40 Aircraft
Diamond | October 27, 2010The Austrian Diamond Star (or the DA40) is a single engine four-seater monoplane (light aircraft category) manufactured using composite alloys. With production houses in Canada and Austria, it was developed by Diamond Aircraft Industries. In fact, the DA 40 has evolved from its two-seat predecessor known as the DA20. The early DA20 was a resounding success. The company picked up from its trails and came up with the current Diamond DA40, an innovative model, equipped with four seats.
It is a low-wing aircraft (cantilever) produced from an admixture of materials. This Diamond aircraft has a “T” tail and a constant nose and wheel landing equipment. The prototype, commonly called the DA40 V1 was powered by Rotax (R-914) first scaled the skies in 1997, November 5th. This was soon followed by a second experimental prototype (OE-VPE or DA40 V2), propelled by the Continental cylinder (configuration 10-240). A third model, the V3 ran on a Lycoming engine. This type of engines was later moved to Canada. The diesel engines were handled by the Austrian production house.
Formally, the DA40 has revealed itself in three models, namely the DA 40, the DA 40 F and the DA 40D. During the initial days, the DA40 was manufactured and sold as the Textron Lycoming-powered DA40 180. By the end of 2006, the FP and the XL models substituted the DA40-180.
Powered by the 130,000W engine (the fuel interjected Lycoming 10), the DA40-XL has a steady speed-propeller. Cruising highest at 147 knot-speeds, the 1150 kilogram plane (take-off weight) consumes 9.2 American gallons of aviation gasoline per hour. A variation to this configuration is the DA40-F or the FP, whose propeller is “fixed-pitch”, and which also has a carburettor in place of the fuel-injected engine. Barring these, functionally it resembles the XL.
On the same lines, a different variant is DA40-TDI. This model makes use of the unique Centurion engine (technically, a Thielert); the difference lies in the fact that this diesel engine, with 135 horsepower burns jet-fuel or diesel.
Nearing the end of 2007 the Diamond Star developed a better DA40, incorporated with the CS version. An XLS deluxe version having a WAAS capable G1000, TAS and a power-flow tuned exhaust was also introduced. These features were absent in the Diamond Da40 CS model as it is categorized as the economy version. There are a few things that may surprise you. Crew and travelers board the aircraft through the wing’s edge, which is quite an odd feature in low wing aircrafts.
The major part of the production of these aircrafts is accomplished at the factories of Ontario and Wiener Neustadt. Other than that, there’s another production wing at Shandong. The Shandon Bin AO Aircraft Industries has joined in a tie-up with the company.
In the past DA40 featured conventional instruments and the safety feature of G1000 was optional. All the aircrafts produced and sold currently sport the G1000 (Garmin). This alteration occurred following the FAR standards.
The successor of the model discussed above is the Diamond Da50.
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