10 years since the first flight of the general-purpose aircraft DA50-JP7.

The five-seat DA50 first took to the skies on April 4, 2007, at the Wiener Neustadt East Airport in Austria. Its key features included a predominantly composite airframe and a 350-hp opposed piston engine. However, due to economic difficulties, the company suspended the project two years later in favor of other programs.

The AI-450 engine, featuring a centrifugal compressor and a maximum output of 460 hp, was originally developed in 1988. It was designed specifically for general-purpose aviation but found no application in serial production due to the economic crisis during the USSR’s final years and the early post-Soviet period. Collaboration with Diamond Aircraft opened up promising opportunities for the Ukrainian side and enabled Austrian partners to offer the market an aircraft with new capabilities.

In 2017, Motor Sich and Diamond Aircraft signed a framework agreement for the supply of 400 AI-450S engines between 2018 and 2023 for the DA50 aircraft. The following year, they finalized a firm contract for 36 engines, with plans for it to be the first of many such agreements. However, by 2019, no serial production DA50 had been released, and Diamond Aircraft had already become a subsidiary of the Chinese manufacturer Wanfeng Aviation.

Today, Diamond Aircraft offers its plane only in the DA50 RG variant, powered by an efficient Continental CD-300 diesel engine with 300 hp, capable of running on jet fuel.