Changes At Superior Air Parts

In an interview with AVweb, Thielert said the diesel engine training center will be established in Dallas and parts will be stocked there — but there’s no immediate intention to distribute diesel engines and parts through the existing Superior network. In the meantime, Diamond, which is basically the only current and sizeable North American customer for the engines, is creating its own service network among its 54 dealers, with support and parts from Thielert. Thielert also downplayed any speculation about going head to head with Lycoming and Continental. “This is not our core business. We like that Superior has the IO-360 and we support them by making parts for this engine, but we have not planned to make further models,” he said. “They will absolutely continue with the certified engine and the experimental engines. Where we see the advantage is to support them on the manufacturing side.” What is planned for Superior is a 30-percent annual increase in parts production, likely in concert with manufacturing facilities in Germany. Thielert said he intends to leave Superior alone in the distribution and service ends of the existing business and concentrate on boosting production. All the current staff will keep their jobs and more engineers and technical personnel will be added to bolster the manufacturing side. “We want to concentrate on the manufacturing side,” Thielert said. “We are absolutely in line with decisions they have made in service and distribution.”