MEBA 2012: Diamond aiming to sparkle at MEBA

Diamond Aircraft (stand 662 and static park) is at the show promoting its training offering – the single-engine DA40 and the four-seat twin DA42 propeller aircraft – for a key audience of flight training schools.

Saudi Aviation Flight Academy (SAFA), Horizon Flight Academy in Al Ain and Fujairah Aviation Academy all fly the type, and part of the company’s long-term strategy is to introduce people in the region to Diamond products.

The OEM also says its new aircraft – the D-Jet – will fly in 2014. Bernhard Gruber, fleet sales manager, explained: “The DA40 and DA42 both feature the Garmin G1000 cockpit and we are flying the new D-Jet with the same avionics, so it should be an easy transition for students.”

Diamond Aircraft has also tested what it says is the first fly-by-wire system for an aircraft in the general aviation category on the DA42.

The OEM flew the four-axis fly-by-wire system on the twin as part of an EU research project called small aircraft future avionics architecture (SAFAR).

The control system is designed to prevent pilots from accidentally overstressing the structural characteristics of the aircraft. A digital computer converts pilot inputs to signals that operate the control surfaces.

Diamond also partners with Aurora Flight Sciences to create the Centaur optionally piloted aircraft (OPA). Based on the Diamond DA42 multi-purpose platform (MPP), Centaur provides a versatile, flexible intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform with exceptional range, high efficiency, and extremely low life cycle cost for many missions whether defence, intelligence, law enforcement or science related.