Good ideas are fairly common; bringing them to fruition not so much. But Pete Plumb is beating the odds with his 1/2-version of the O-200 Continental engine. The idea is to bring torquey, durable power to flyweight aircraft, and Plumb is happy to report the new engine is nearly ready for mainstream production.
At this Saturday’s Alternative Engine Conference at the French Valley airport in Temecula, California, Plumb brought along his now-familiar 58 hp demonstration engine, but also had his new cylinder case castings available for inspection.
The DP-1 engine case joins the already developed DP-1 crankshaft, pistons, camshaft and a few other specialty parts, that when joined with existing Continental O-200 Cylinders and other parts forms the O-100 engine. Retail pricing for the DP-1 parts approach $5,000, the necessary O-200 parts are about the same, leading to a target price of under $10,000 for all parts needed to assemble a DP-1 engine.
Pegasus would love to say the engine is ready for sale today, but has been diligently checking off design, testing and manufacturing steps before releasing parts to the public. Test engines are running (the website says the engine is in production), and a Crackerjack single-seater airframe (designed by Pete years ago) obtained for DP-1 flight tests. Visit www.flypegasuspower.com for more details.
