Viking Aircraft Engines, the Edgewater, Florida-based manufacturer of piston aircraft engines, has fashioned a seemingly humble business-model into a genuine, and genuinely American success story.
Viking’s praxis is simple. The company buys new and gently-used, late-model Honda automotive engines, and converts them to aircraft powerplants. Conversion, however, is no simple feat. In point of fact, it’s a downright complex process comprising extensive modification of the engine’s cylinder heads, valve-train, cam chain, pistons, oil-system, crankshaft, exhaust manifold, and a great many other bits and bobs which, though critical, make for boring reading.
Viking’s co-owner and principal engine-designer, Jan Eggenfellner, points out that contemporary perceptions of piston aircraft engines are predicated largely upon the horizontally-opposed, air-cooled, Lycoming and Continental mills that powered the light, Cessna and Piper aircraft in which so many of today’s pilots trained. Mr. Eggenfellner cites alternate piston aircraft engine architectures—such as the inline, “V”, and radial configurations—for purpose of illustrating the fallaciousness of the belief that aircraft engines must conform to pilots’ preconceived notions.
Even casual comparison of legacy, horizontally-opposed, air-cooled aircraft engines to Viking’s Honda-based, inline, liquid-cooled powerplants is apt to leave pilots questioning their faith in and devotion to the former. By every metric, Viking’s engines are more powerful, reliable, fuel-efficient, and clean-burning than their fin-sporting, 100LL-burning, dual-magneto counterparts.
Mr. Eggenfellner remarks, “to say that because an engine looks a certain way, that makes it an aircraft engine … that’s not true."
To date, over one-thousand kit-aircraft builders have evinced their concurrence with Eggenfellner’s assertions by entrusting their builds and lives to Viking engines. Manufacturers of kit aircraft, too, have acknowledged the functionality and practicality of Viking engines. Zenith—the Missouri based manufacturer of the popular CH650, STOL CH750, and CH750 CRUZER aircraft kits—has seen over ninety-percent of its customers opt to equip their builds with Viking powerplants.
Honda Motor Company founder Soichiro Honda—who held a private pilot license and flew well into his later years—would likely condone and appreciate the forward-thinking ethos and high-quality execution by which Viking has started something special with his company’s automotive engines.
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