How Fast is a DA42?
Posted on May 22, 2013
There are three flavors of diesel DA42 available in North America:
- DA42TDi with 135 HP Centurion engines
- DA42NG with 168 HP Austro AE300 engines
- DA42N-VI with Austro engines and a suite of aerodynamic cleanups
As with just about everything in aviation, there are tradeoffs between cost and performance, and what follows is drawn from the aircraft flight manuals for each aircraft.
Diamond is very good about publishing their AFM and maintenance/parts manuals online. Here are links to the entire DA42 AFM
Just the cruise performance tables are here:
DA42NG Cruise Performance
DA42NG-VI Cruise Performance
DA42NG Cruise Performance
DA42NG-VI Cruise Performance
These are conservative numbers which you should expect to meet at max gross weight. At altitudes below 12,000:
- DA42NG-VI is 3 – 5 KTAS faster than DA42NG
- DA42NG is 10 – 15 KTAS faster than the DA42 TDi
AT 16,000 and above, the gap widens:
- DA42NG-VI is 15 KTAS faster than DA42NG
- DA42NG is 15 – 18 KTAS faster than DA42 TDi
Altitude | VI 92% 8.1 GPH | NG-92% 8.1GPH | Tdi 90% 7.2GPH |
2000 | 165 | 165 | 151 |
4000 | 168 | 167 | 154 |
6000 | 172 | 168 | 157 |
8000 | 175 | 171 | 160 |
10000 | 179 | 173 | 163 |
12000 | 182 | 174 | 162 |
14000 | 189 | 175 | 163 |
16000 | 191 | 174 | 156 |
18000 | 188 | 173 | 157 |
Great Lakes Diamond has sold more DA42NG aircraft than any other Diamond distributor. Our local Diamond Service Center, A&M Aircraft Services, maintains more than a dozen of the DA42 models. We are the DA42 experts! Let us help you choose the right plane for your mission.
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