The Superior Air Parts XP-400 is an
aircraft engine
An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...
, designed and produced by
Superior Air Parts of
Coppell, Texas
Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in th ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
for use in
homebuilt aircraft
Homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes, are constructed by persons for whom this is not a professional activity. These aircraft may be constructed from "scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits.Armstrong, Kenn ...
.
[Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', pages 262-263. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. ]
The company is owned by the Chinese company
Superior Aviation Beijing
Superior Aviation Beijing is a Chinese aircraft manufacturer.
Superior was initially formed as Qingdao Haili Helicopter Co and Qingdao Brantly Investment Group, a private venture that purchased the Brantly International rights and tooling to ...
, which is 60% owned by Chairman Cheng Shenzong and 40% owned by
Beijing E-Town, an economic development agency of the municipal government of
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
.
Design and development
The engine is a four-cylinder
four-stroke
A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...
,
horizontally-opposed
A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, ...
, displacement,
fuel injected
Fuel injection is the introduction of fuel in an internal combustion engine, most commonly automotive engines, by the means of a fuel injector. This article focuses on fuel injection in reciprocating piston and Wankel rotary engines.
All co ...
air-cooled, direct-drive, gasoline engine design. It produces , with an 8.9:1 compression ratio.
The engine is not
type certified and is therefore intended for homebuilt aircraft.
In March 2019 the engine type was withdrawn from service and all customer engines were subject to a mandatory, immediate buy-back by the manufacturer to remove them from service. The company made this decision based on
detonation
Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with ...
problems found in some XP-400 engines that could not be resolved. Due to parts commonality, the decision was made to buy-back the
Superior Air Parts XP-382 engines as well.
In February 2020, Superior settled a lawsuit regarding the 2016 fatal crash of a
Van's Aircraft RV-8A for
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
5M. The crash was due to the failure of the crankshaft in the installed XP-400 engine. In the accident investigation the
NTSB
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inc ...
determined that the crankshaft failed due to
metal fatigue
In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...
. The crankshaft had 20 hours of flight time on it at the time of failure.
Specifications (XP-400)
See also
References
External links
*
{{Superior Air Parts
Superior Air Parts engines
Air-cooled aircraft piston engines
1990s aircraft piston engines