Diamond’s DA52 A Centerpiece

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Even before Aero opened on Wednesday, Diamond’s new DA52 twin was drawing a lot of attention. During a pre-show press tour, Diamond’s chief test pilot Ingmar Mayerbuch said on the flight into Friedsrichshafen from Diamond’s Wiener Nuestadt, Austria factory, the airplane burned only 60 liters of Jet A to fly about 260 miles. (For the metrically challenged, that’s about 16.6 MPG and notable economy for any airplane, much less a twin.) The DA52 is powered by two 180-horsepower variants of the Austro AE300 diesel engines that Diamond’s sister company, Austro AG, developed specifically for the airplane.

According to Mayerbuch, it benefits greatly from the significant work Diamond did on reducing cooling and aerodynamic drag on the DA42, which resulted in another new model, the DA42 V1. (See AVweb’s exclusive flight video here.) The V1 is on display at Aero, too, but most early show goers were gawking at the large cabin of the DA52. It’s about the size of an Aztec and Diamond is mulling over seating options of up to seven people. Two configurations are on display here, a wide rear bench seat and a baggage compartment seat, both of which would seat five. Look for an AVweb video on the airplane later in the week.

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