Bushliner Aircraft is now taking reservations for its DeltaHawk diesel-powered Bushliner 1850. The company says it has done initial flight testing on the taildragger, which has the DeltaHawk 350-horsepower DHK350A6 engine. The company is producing the aircraft under new MOSAIC rules while also pursuing Part 23 certification, which it plans for 2030. The MOSAIC version will be four-place (only two can be filled with a Sport Pilot in command) and aimed at the recreational market, although MOSAIC rules do allow some commercial activity. The MOSAIC version will come with Garmin G3X IFR panel with a GTN 750Xi and ADS-B. There’s a four-axis autopilot with electric trim and Garmin Smart Glide. Power for Starlink is built in. The certified version will have six seats.
The company is promoting the Bushliner as an aircraft of the future because it will not need avgas. Bushliner is predicting that the market will shift to diesel because there are so many unknowns with the phase-out and replacement of 100LL with one or more of three candidate unleaded fuels vying to be that replacement. “This is not a simple fuel change,” Bushliner said in a social media post. “It’s a structural shift in general aviation.” As it stands now, none of the three fuels is able to mix with the others and there are fears that fuel selections will be regionalized and therefore difficult to manage for flight planning. Jet A is available almost anywhere, and the engine will run on No. 2 diesel if necessary. “The Bushliner 1850 is entering production under MOSAIC, aligned with long-term fuel availability and regulatory reality,” the company said. “This decision wasn’t about headlines. It was about protecting our customers’ ability to fly—anywhere—after 2030.”
I really wish we had a diesel engine come under certification in the 90s. That’s two decades of lost innovation and improvements for GA.
We did have them even before the 90s. It’s just that manufacturers went with cheaper AvGas engines for certification and diesels died in the market of plentiful and cheap AvGas. Now they’re being thought of again. I myself would rather see economical small turbines for GA.
Just an observation, and wondering, is an aircraft with a tailwheel now also referred to as a taildragger? I always thought as aircraft (aeroplane) with a tailskid is a taildragger.
Aircraft with a tailskid or tail wheel are called “conventional gear” aircraft. These aircraft have the main gear installed forward of the center of gravity. Aircraft with a wheel or wheels at the nose and main gear that are located aft of the center if gravity are called “nose wheel” aircraft or aircraft with tricycle landing gear. The term “tail dragger” is a slang term, neither a proper legal nor a correct FAA technical description. As a slang term it refers to both conventional gear configurations that use a tail wheel or a metal/wood fixed skid.
Got it, thanks. When I first started flying (way back, but not pioneer day), conventional gear w/ a tailwheel slang was “tailwheel” and those who were early aviation specialists, flying with the tail skid, would get annoyed at people who called both taildraggers, as the true dragging was without a tailwheel, the skid dragged and was the braking system.👍
….and it will cost $850K