Diamond Aircraft Successfully Completes First Flight Of Single-Engine DA50 With Retractable Gear

---

After announcing in April it would move its DA50 aircraft program in a new direction, including adding retractable gear, Diamond Aircraft successfully completed the first flight of the DA50 with retractable gear in late October. (Photo courtesy of Diamond Aircraft.)

Back in April, Austria-based Diamond Aircraft announced plans to take its DA50 aircraft program in a new direction by migrating to a new engine concept and adding retractable gear. In late October, Diamond reported it successfully completed the first flight of a single-engine five-seat DA50 variant with that retractable gear. The aircraft also incorporated the 300-horsepower Continental CD-300 Jet-A1 engine Diamond mentioned in its April announcement.

“A Very Mature Impression”

Taking place on October 28, the DA50’s first flight with retractable gear was led by pilots Sören Pedersen and Niko Daroussis. Pedersen, Diamond Aircraft Austria head of flight test, says all the aircraft’s systems worked as planned. “Since all new elements are already well-known from other aircraft out of the Diamond aircraft family, the DA50 made a very mature impression from the first lift off on,” he says. “A first cruise performance test point showed that the expectation could be met easily. The DA50 showed a good agility and an ‘easy to fly’ behavior, meaning that the handling qualities were very satisfying on the first impression.”

Diamond is shooting for basic certification from the EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) for a five-seat DA50 version with CD-300 engine and retractable gear sometime in summer 2020. Billed as offering the “largest cabin of any single-engine piston airplane,” the DA50 was introduced in 2017 in five-, six-, and seven-seat versions. Diamond says the all-carbon-fiber aircraft’s “extra-large luxurious cabin and excellent payload” is ideal for single-piston pilots “needing more seats and space and for charter operators looking for a low-cost alternative.”

Find Diamond Aircraft Planes

Controller.com has scores of new and used planes from Diamond Aircraft for sale every day, including DA62s, DA42s, DA40s, and DA20s.

Source: Diamond Aircraft

Questions? Comments? Visit the Controller Forums to ask questions, get answers, and share your thoughts.