Aviation Maintenance: General Aviation: Lycoming’s Thunderbolt Line: Performance and Certified Quality for the Experimental Market

"We’re addressing what the market wants," said Lycoming’s senior VP and general manager Ian Walsh, in a private interview for this story. "We want to provide these non-standard engines that people want. Let us be the ones who help you get what you want."

The Thunderbolt line from Lycoming can be thought of as a "candy-store" approach to getting a quality engine, exactly what the builder of an experimental aircraft wants, whether he’s a Reno racer, an acrobatic competitor or performer or someone that wants a honkin’ RV, Glasair or other homebuilt/experimental aircraft with a pedigreed, custom engine.

Lycoming’s parts bins are full of interesting things and under the Thunderbolt banner the factory will build an engine to order using the same quality parts that go into their certified engines, but without the limitations and expense of the certified products. Even with the custom attention and performance enhancements offered on the Thunderbolt line, the offsetting warranty and especially liability considerations will make these engines significantly less expensive than equivalent certified engines.

The Thunderbolt engines are definitely aimed at the performance customer. All cylinder heads are ported and polished, connecting rods and pistons are matched and balanced to.5 grams, and customers can select from a variety of compression ratios (8.9:1, 10:1, and even 11:1, for high performance race competitors) or they can add a turbo or even two (but not at 11:1). Other options come to mind: Carburetor or fuel injection? One mag or two? Standard or lightweight starter? All Thunderbolt engines come standard with Lycoming’s proprietary Roller Tappet technology. All the parts are available for most of the engines; it’s a matter of making a balanced choice and having the Lycoming team assemble and test-run it.

Thunderbolt Categories

The Thunderbolt engines are divided into three categories: Signature (2-year, 200-hour parts and labor warranty), Extreme (1-year, 100-hour) and Competition (well-made, but you’re on your own). The Signature engines carry a lot of the Thunderbolt features, including balanced and matched pistons and connecting rods and ported and polished heads. Signature engines also come in special colors that set off various sumps, ignition systems and induction systems (including fuel injection and turbo charging).

Extreme engines get all the Signature treatment, but include higher compression ratio options, perhaps a pair of turbochargers and additional attention by each engine’s dedicated build team that walks each Thunderbolt engine through every stage of build and test.

Competition-level customers can get just about as nuts as they want, though Lycoming engineers review the "fringe" requests. Lycoming’s parts list and build list are set up to avoid truly unreliable combinations, but Lycoming understands that ultimate "reliability" may actually not be the number-one criterion for a competitor. These more-unusual requests will be worked out between the customer and Lycoming engineers, whose advice in such situations should be carefully heeded. These engines have won at Reno the past two years in the Nemesis NXT of Jon Sharp, and have powered other contenders at "the ultimate proving ground" for the past couple years, without component-related failures. Sharp’s "Super Sport" class racer averaged better than 386 mph in 2007; that’s around the pylons, by the way. Acro performers, including show-busters like Michael Goulian and Red Bull Champion Kirby Chambliss are running Thunderbolt engines.

Dane McGuffee, Lycoming’s director of aftermarket sales said, "It’s a foundational approach. We’re not going to just put together a bunch of parts. In a way, we’re helping protect people from themselves. Our brand [Lycoming] is on every engine. Every engine is built to our standards." Of course, everyone wants to save money everywhere on his or her airplane, and many times people have used worn-out parts or parts of dubious provenance in experimental engines. That’s something Lycoming is trying to prevent across the industry. "We offer an engine that may be a little more in price [than a ‘sweepings’ engine], but we have a huge margin in safety and value. People want an ‘economical’ engine, but they shouldn’t be forced to use junk!"

Customization

Among the most-popular Thunderbolt options are the custom colors. "Any color you want, as long as it’s grey" no longer applies and many builders are opting for airframe-coordinated colors, even for chrome on parts where it’s possible. Brian Costello, long-time field service engineer at Lycoming said, "The cosmetics are a significant part of the customer requests." A lot of builders know which "standard" model engine they would like, and they opt for the Thunderbolt to save money and to get the look they’re after. He likes the predictability of the Thunderbolt idea, as well. "It’s still a Lycoming; it acts like a Lycoming; it maintains like a Lycoming — normal practices, normal manuals." For the Extreme and especially Competition-level Thunderbolts, Brain said, "The customer can count on one-on-one support" from field service and even from engineering when necessary.

The Thunderbolt line is also providing market research to the company. Walsh’s own RV, for instance, has the first Thunderbolt IO-390X in it. It’s a popular configuration, and it’s working well. McGuffee said at the HAI convention in February, "It’s a foregone conclusion" that some close variant of Walsh’s engine will become a certified product.

Thunderbolt has recently installed a new manager, an A&P and IA who is also a commercial pilot with multi and instrument ratings. Jeff Schans is eager to meet both existing customers and new prospects, and asked that we include the Thunderbolt phone number in this article: 866-MY-TBOLT (866-698-2658).

The future of Thunderbolt is exciting. "Over time," Walsh said, "we continue to build a menu, a list of options for people who want to specify their own engines; and with the strong reputation of Lycoming behind every one, we know the experimental aircraft owners will find the perfect customized engine for their airplane." And right now, customers can visit Lycoming’s candy store at www.lycoming.textron.com/thunderbolt.