A glider with an engine

Diamond’s story starts with a glider that refused to need a tow. Austrian designer Wolf Hoffmann founded Hoffmann Flugzeugbau in 1981 at Friesach in Carinthia, and his first product was the H36 Dimona, a two-seat motor glider built entirely of glass fibre with long 16-metre wings that two people could fold in a few minutes. It first flew in October 1980 and became the best-selling motor glider in Europe. Ownership then changed hands quickly. In 1985 the firm became Hoffman Aircraft, a subsidiary of the industrial group Simmering-Graz-Pauker, and moved its head office to Vienna. In 1987 production settled at Wiener Neustadt, south of the capital, where it still is.

The Katana goes to Canada

From the Dimona came a proper aeroplane. Designers cut the wings, added flaps and a nosewheel, and produced the DV20 Katana, a Rotax-powered two-seat trainer that first flew in 1991 and was certified in May 1993. In 1991 the Dries family bought the business, and Christian Dries decided Europe was not enough. In 1992 he opened a second factory in London, Ontario, to attack the American market. The Canadian version, the DA20, carried around 40 changes and won Flight’s Eagle Award in 1995. By 1998 the whole group had taken the Diamond name, and the Austrian side had bought its own airport at Wiener Neustadt East.

Diesel in the sky

Diamond’s next bets were bold. The four-seat DA40 Diamond Star first flew on 5 November 1997, and a diesel version launched in 2001 was the first production aircraft powered by a single diesel piston engine. Then came the DA42 Twin Star, the first new light twin from Europe in a quarter of a century, certified in May 2004. That August a DA42 became the first diesel aircraft to fly the North Atlantic non-stop. When the engine supplier Thielert went insolvent in 2008, DA42 production stopped, despite the type holding around 80 per cent of its market. Diamond’s answer was to build its own engine, the Austro AE 300, certified in 2009.

The jet that nearly sank the company

The ambition that nearly broke Diamond was a jet. Launched in 2003, the five-seat single-engine D-Jet was meant to carry the company into the very-light-jet boom. The 2008 financial crisis arrived first. Diamond cut 100 jobs at Wiener Neustadt that December, and in 2011 laid off 213 staff in London, Ontario, after Canada’s government refused a further loan. A planned sale of the Canadian arm to a Dubai investor was never completed, and in early 2013 the D-Jet was abandoned. Meanwhile the market quietly changed under the company’s feet. By 2012 Christian Dries said two-thirds of revenue came from military and government buyers, mostly for surveillance versions of the DA42.

Chinese owners, Austrian roots

Rescue came from China. In December 2016 Wanfeng Aviation, part of the Wanfeng Auto group, bought 60 per cent of Diamond’s Canadian operation, and a year later it bought the rest of the company. The new owners expanded rather than stripped it: in 2019 Diamond said it was hiring to more than double Austrian output, from about 90 to nearly 200 aircraft a year. Wiener Neustadt kept the design lead. The DA62 twin, certified in 2015, passed 270 deliveries by 2024, the eDA40 electric trainer first flew in July 2023, and the turboprop DART-750 flew that June. Air forces from Thailand to Switzerland now fly Diamonds as trainers and spy planes.

Fabrikalar

• Wiener Neustadt · Wiener Neustadt East airport, Lower Austria — Main plant and headquarters since 1987; company bought the airport in 1998
• Diamond Composite · Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria — 10,900 square metre composites plant announced 2003 for DA42 and D-Jet structures
• Diamond Aircraft Canada · London, Ontario — Opened 1992 for the North American market
• Diamond Aircraft Croatia · Varaždin, Croatia — Composite parts plant set up in 2004
• Friesach · Friesach, Carinthia — Birthplace of Hoffmann Flugzeugbau, 1981

İnsanlar

• Wolf Hoffmann · founder and designer — Designed the H36 Dimona motor glider
• Christian Dries · owner and CEO — Family bought the company in 1991; drove the DA42 concept and the Canadian expansion
• Dieter Köhler · engineer — Developed the improved HK36R from 1987
• Peter Maurer · CEO, Diamond Aircraft Canada — Led the D-Jet funding fight of 2011
• Liqun Zhang · CEO, Diamond Aircraft Austria — Led the post-Wanfeng production ramp-up
• Gérard Guillaumaud · pilot — Flew the DA42 non-stop across the North Atlantic in 2004

Rekorlar ve ilkler

• First production aircraft with a single diesel piston engine, DA40 TDI, 2001
• First diesel-powered fixed-wing aircraft to cross the North Atlantic non-stop, DA42, August 2004
• First aircraft publicly flown on algae-derived jet fuel, DA42 with Austro engines, June 2010
• DA42 was the first new European light twin in its category in more than 25 years