Superior Air Parts XP-400

The Superior Air Parts XP-400 is an aircraft engine, designed and produced by Superior Air Parts of Coppell, Texas, United States for use in homebuilt aircraft.[1]

Superior Air Parts XP-400
Type Aircraft engine
National origin United States
Manufacturer Superior Air Parts

The company is owned by the Chinese company Superior Aviation Beijing, 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.

Design and development

The engine is a four-cylinder four-stroke, horizontally-opposed, 400 cu in (6,555 cc) displacement, fuel injected air-cooled, direct-drive, gasoline engine design. It produces 215 hp (160 kW), with an 8.9:1 compression ratio.[1][2]

The engine is not type certified and is therefore intended for homebuilt aircraft.[3]

In March 2019 the engine type was withdrawn from service and all customer engines were subject to a mandatory, immediate buy-back by the manufacturer to remove them from service.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 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.[4][5]

In February 2020, Superior settled a lawsuit regarding the 2016 fatal crash of a Van's Aircraft RV-8A for US$5M. The crash was due to the failure of the crankshaft in the installed XP-400 engine. In the accident investigation the NTSB determined that the crankshaft failed due to metal fatigue. The crankshaft had 20 hours of flight time on it at the time of failure.[6]

Specifications (XP-400)

Data from Tacke and manufacturer[1][2]

General characteristics
  • Type: Four cylinder, four stroke aircraft engine
  • Displacement: 400 cu in (6,555 cc)
  • Length: 32.8 in (833 mm)
  • Width: 34.3 in (871 mm)
  • Height: 24.0 in (610 mm)
  • Dry weight: 310 lb (140.6 kg)

Components

Performance

See also

Related lists

References
  1. Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16, pages 262-263. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015. ISSN 1368-485X
  2. Superior Air Parts (2013). "Engine models". superiorairparts.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  3. Superior Air Parts (2013). "FAQ". superiorairparts.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  4. O'Connor, Kate (1 March 2019). "Superior Grounds XP-382 And XP-400 Engines". AVweb. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  5. Cook, Marc (1 March 2019). "Detonation Concerns Behind Superior's Buyback Of XP-400 And XP-382 Engines". AVweb. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 10 April 2019.
  6. Cook, Marc (11 February 2020). "Superior Settles One XP-400 Lawsuit". AVweb. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
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