Engine OK Helps Company Take Off

Porterville-based Tule River Aero-Industries plans to hire new workers and is anticipating a boost in business since gaining approval to install a new type of plane engine.

The aircraft repair and sales company owned by the Tule River tribe has had an agreement for at least two years to be the West Coast distributor -- one of five distributors in North America -- of an engine manufactured by the French company SMA Engines.

The new diesel engine is billed as cleaner burning, cheaper to operate and running on jet fuel.

Tule River Aero-Industries had been waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration to give its approval. The agency granted it late last month.

The company can now begin retrofitting four-passenger Cessna 182 Q and 182 R planes with the new engine.

"In the aviation community, this is big news," company spokesman Dave Farrar said. "Our phones have been ringing off the hook the last couple of days."

The company has five oral commitments from customers who want the new engine installed and interest from several others, including a border patrol agency that likes the increased flying time the engine gets, said President and CEO Rick Rossner.

Executives also are excited about the impact it will have on the company, which employs 15 people. It had laid off a small number of workers more than a year ago.

"It's going to have to grow," Farrar said. "We won't be able to handle it with the people we've got."

Rossner estimated that the company will hire six to 10 people within the next six months.

Customers will spend $77,000 for the company to install the new engine. It is only certified for certain models manufactured between 1979 and 1986, although other models and older planes are expected to be approved for installation soon, Rossner said.

"The engine itself is completely different," Farrar said.

Cessnas traditionally run on aviation gasoline. The SMA engine is designed to run on jet fuel and use about 45% less fuel.

Jet fuel usually is less expensive than aviation gas -- sometimes 70 cents a gallon less, Rossner said. Pilots can save $160,000 over the life of the engine, Farrar said.

The fuel also is more environmentally friendly. It doesn't have any lead or carbon monoxide emissions; aviation gas does, he said.

The new engine also means less work for the aircraft owner, said Charles Lloyd, a Cessna pilot and contributing editor of the Kansas-based Cessna Flyer Association magazine.

"The engine is going to require less maintenance," he said. "There's a good chance it's going to be more reliable."

The engine doesn't require spark plugs and a carburetor like existing engines, he said. Tule River Aero-Industries will replace everything from the firewall forward, including the propeller.

Lloyd, however, said it could take a while for the new engines to take off.

"It's going to start off slow, and it will gain momentum," he said. "It may be five years or 10 years or 20 years."

That may be because it costs aircraft owners about half as much to overhaul an engine as it does to replace it with the new one, he said.

Tule River Aero-Industries, which opened in October 2000, is one of the noncasino projects started by the Tule River Economic Development Corp., which owns a 40-acre industrial park. The new engine helps fulfill some of the corporation's goals for development and jobs in the area.

"This is really the future of our business," Rossner said.