Expressing that they made the first flight with ANKA in December 2018 and that they have been flying with AKSUNGUR for one year, Akşit said, “We are in the final stage for PD170 to enter the inventory with AKSUNGUR. At the end of the tests, it will become AKSUNGUR’s mass-production engine before the end of this year. It will enter the inventory with the next AKSUNGUR. There is no problem with the maturity of the PD170 series.”
AKSUNGUR’s engine integration will be completed after ANKA with these studies; Akşit emphasised that they have been flying with Bayraktar TB3 for about 1.5 months and that the platform and engine have performed successfully. Explaining that they carried out tests at an altitude of 20 thousand feet during a severe storm in Istanbul, Akşit noted that they passed the test successfully under harsh weather conditions. Baykar had announced that the TB3 had flown under the southwest wind, reaching speeds of 130 km/h.
Akşit stated that they will continue their efforts to raise the engine to an altitude of 45 thousand feet after it enters the inventory.
Expressing that PD170 is also very popular abroad, Akşit gave the following information:
“We received orders for the engine from five countries. We have not approved all of these. One of the permits was completed, and we finalised the order. Processes regarding the other four countries continue. We believe that it will have a significant place abroad as well. Our engine is currently the engine that burns the least, reaches the highest altitude, and produces the most power at altitude in its class. Bringing all of these together provides a serious advantage to the platform on which it is used. A statement regarding the country of sale would not be correct. “We have started the production of the first engine sold abroad, and the delivery date will be next year.”
Pointing out that this will be a first for Turkey, Akşit said, “Turkey will have exported a high-tech aviation engine for the first time in its history. Some of these countries are truly technological countries.”
Reminding that the work on the engine family in this series started with the PD155, which was urgently requested for ANKA, Akşit said that with the achievements here, the PD170, almost entirely domestically produced, emerged. Mahmut Akşit spoke as follows about the development of the engine family:
“When we introduced 170 horsepower, 1-2 years later, European and American manufacturers announced 170 horsepower diesels in the same class. We will not stop there either. We developed the 225-horsepower version and determined its code to be 222, dedicated to Eskişehir. There is a severe difference between the power of the two engines. An engine that fits in the same place, with a difference of 3-5 kilograms. It must fit in the same position because customers’ need for power in aviation is constantly increasing. When existing engines end their life, they want to replace them with more powerful ones. We developed it considering this; on the other hand, there is the aspect of leaving behind the competition. When we made 170, they announced 170 hp too. We made 225 hp; let’s see when and what they will reveal.
Stating that they developed the PD180, which is 8-10 kilograms lighter than the PD170, cheaper, slightly less altitude capable, and capable of delivering up to 180 horsepower during take-off, for the needs of ANKA, Akşit said, “It is a well-known fact in the world of bikers to derive families from the same nucleus. We also aim to increase the number of PD155, PD170, PD180, PD225 from the PD170 family to over 300.” he said.
In a presentation at the Denizli Chamber of Industry last week, Akşit gave information about his engine work producing over 300 horsepower code PD-300H.
