Turbocharged 135-HP Rotax On Its Way

For those of us who started flying Rotax aero engines when that meant mixing your oil and gas in order to get a whopping 40-hp for your Quicksilver, the development of the 915-iS/iSc is a revelation. The engine is not only turbocharged, but it's intercooled, it has dual-redundant electronic ignition, liquid and air cooling, integrated reduction gearbox and a targeted TBO of 2,000 hours. In other words, the 915-iS/iSc is an incredibly advanced aircraft engine.

Courtesy of Rotax

Rotax has been flying prototypes of the engine on aircraft---around 250 hours are in the air---but it has put better than 10,000 hours on them on the test stand, and so far, the company says, the signs all point toward certification of the engine in the second half of 2017.

Rotax hasn't identified a launch customer for the 915 but says that the engine is targeted toward high-performance two-to-four-seat airplanes, rotorcraft and high-performance sport planes.

Learn more at Rotax.

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Isabel GoyerWriter

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.