A a good article about the WAM engine has been published in Unmanned Systems Technology Magazine.
Two Frenchmen, Philippe and his son Mathieu Berjaud undertook a flight from France to Zandspruit during November and December 2013. The flight took 82 hours to complete and spanned several countries along the West coast of Africa.
Download the article in our articles section.
It has been a long time coming, on 24th Oct we ran our 4 cylinder pre production prototype for the first time.
The engine performed well with the harder job ahead as we develop and refine the engine.
Performance of the engine is as expected given the modular design. Production tooling is still needed for some of the parts after some more key engineering decisions are made.
It has previously been identified that the original WAM-100/120 design had a number of limitations. These were planned to be addressed by a number of design changes, targeted at increased performance, cost and durability. The 'new' or 2nd generation engine development continues steadily, if at a slower pace than desired due to the ongoing supply chain limitations.There are however the following key milestones that have been achieved -
LIBERTY may become the first manufacturer to use the Wilksch WAM120 turbodiesel aero engine in a factory-built certified aircraft.
Florida-based Liberty, which has strong UK links, showed off an XL2 fitted with the 120hp three-cylinder Jet-A1 burning engine at the EAA AirVenture.
Paul Bartlett, the British boss of Liberty, told LOOP that the engine was a "strategic must for us". He continued: "The engine is the right size, has the right amount of power, weighs no more than the current Continental engine and offers 120kt at a fuel burn of 5.5 US gallons per hour."
13 April 2008
WAM-100 LSA Engine flies to Sun 'n Fun
Today, 10th April marked a historic day when the first diesel powered LSA prototype took to the skies from its home field at Dallas Executive Airport to fly to Sun 'n Fun in Florida.
See Thorp / WAM-100 LSA for further details.
22 Nov 2007
Wilksch Airmotive Recruiting for 2007/2008 expansion program
As part of Wilksch Airmotive's expansion program they are looking to recruit staff
This will enable them to increase production, particularly in the LSA market and also to expand their development of new products.
1 September 2005
The first WAM-100 customer flew today in Pietenpol Aircamper G-BUXK. Three test flights were completed following initial ground runs and system checks.
A few minutes flying in Thorp G-TZII with Mark Wilksch was all that was required to familiarise the test pilot, Keith Matcham with the WAM engine handling and CI-Log engine monitor.
June 2004
Wilksch Airmotive and Lister Petter Announce New Production Facility, see Press Release No.17.
A larger intercooler has been fitted to the Thorp T211 test bed aircraft to allow the full 120HP rating to be used in this installation. Due to space restrictions, the Thorp and Europa will retain the front mounted intercooler. A side mounted intercooler installation is being developed for the RV-7/8/9 aircraft series. The new Thorp installation will be flight tested during February.
15 October 2003
WAM-120 powered Thorp demonstrates 400ft/min climb at FL140. High altitude restarts achieved without problems.
10 July 2003
First CI-Log Cockpit Module fitted to Thorp aircraft.
3 July 2003
Feature article on the WAM-120 in Thorp T211 published in August issue of "FLYER". Mark Hales gives a first hand account of WAM-120 operation and performance. Miles McCallum takes a look inside the WAM-120.
7 November 2002
PFA Engineering have accepted WAM's test report and and will now accept the WAM-120 engine for use in PFA aircraft broadly falling into the JAR-VLA category. This is initially at 98HP rating. WAM is now conducting further testing to increase this rating to 110 then 120HP.
As part of the Royal Aero Societies prestigious series of lectures Mark Wilksch and Phil Franklin presented.
December 2001
Vans Aircraft Corp assist WAM with RV-9a installation.
December 2001
Wilksch Airmotive is featured over several pages and the cover of the PFA's "Popular Flying". Read about the Company, the product and the WAM team thanks to Nigel Hitchman's words. See Ed Hick's fabulous pictures of WAM powered Europa G-WWWG.
Over the 5th and 9th October six test flights were made with the aim of assessing cooling efficiency with the new engine, now equipped with a MTV-6D 157 – 106 propeller, and at higher power settings than were available with the earlier prototype engines and different propellers. Sixteen test flights have now been completed since 2nd January 2001. The new hydraulic MT propeller was fitted in anticipation of the production WAM-120 and its integral oil feed to the propeller and governor mount pad. Until the new engine is available the MT is being used as a ground adjustable.
December 1999
CITEC-Europa first flight
On Friday 31-DEC-99, Europa G-WWWG completed its first flight in the capable hands of test pilot Graham Singleton. The engine performed faultlessly and Graham was particularly complementary on the low levels of cockpit noise and vibration. "Quieter than a Rotax" was one of his comments. Performance was good with brisk acceleration during the takeoff role. Unfortunately poor visibility limited flights to short hops only. Changes to the oil cooling system and additional instrumentation will now be completed before more flights in the near future.
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