Diamond Aircraft will start selling a Garmin G500-equipped glass cockpit as an option in the DA20 trainer this fall, the company announced at AirVenture on Monday. That makes three panel options for the two-seat trainer: Conventional steam gauges and a cockpit with an Aspen Avionics glass display are still available. Diamond is hyping the G500 as a low-cost option to give students experience with glass panels. A DA20 with that panel, including Garmin’s synthetic vision, with provides a three-dimensional rendering of terrain, will sell for $185,000.

Hawker Beechcraft used AirVenture to announce a new version of its popular King Air turboprop. The C90GTx doubles the full-fuel payload capacity of its predecessor, to 750 pounds; four-passenger range is 200 miles longer with the new turboprop. The company will start deliveries of the C90GTx in 2010, though pricing was not immediately released. Other improvements include winglets that boost climb performance and fuel efficiency; as well as onboard weather radar that Beechcraft says can detect turbulence ahead.

The sour economy isn’t dissuading pilots from descending on Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisc., this week. Organizers at the Experimental Aircraft Association are expecting about 100,000 planes and hundreds of thousands more people to come to AirVenture this week, similar to last year’s numbers, the Wichita Eagle reported. GA manufacturers have been hit hard in the last year, so AirVenture this week may not have as many unveilings as in years past. Even still, attendees can look forward to visits from the Airbus A380 and the WhiteKnightTwo in separate appearances later this week. Cessna will give an update on its SkyCatcher program, which was delayed when two of its test planes were involved in spin-related crashes. Hawker Beechcraft has said it will make an announcement, and Diamond is rolling out almost its entire product line. Diamond will have both new versions of the Twin Star on display, along with a mockup of the D-Jet and two D-Jet test planes. The company is also bringing the HK36 motorglider back to the U.S. market and will announce upgrades to the DA20, a two-seat plane used by a growing number of flight schools, it said in a news release.

Diamond Aircraft will finally be able to restart production of the DA42 Twin Star at its Ontario facilities, now that it has gotten Canadian certification for the DA42 equipped with Lycoming engines. The plane maker was all but forced to stop making Twin Stars when Thielert, which had made the plane’s diesel engines, went bankrupt last year, Diamond said in a news release. Diamond has not said how many orders it has for the Twin Star. It has also not released pricing for owners of older Thielert-powered Twin Stars who want their engines switched to the newer Lycomings. In January, European authorities certified a version of the Twin Star using a new diesel engine that Diamond helped develop. Both versions of the Twin Star will be on display at Oshkosh later this month. The Lycoming-powered Twin Star sells for about $600,000. Diamond expects to get FAA certification for it soon.

Diamond Aircraft says it will be able to start shipping DA42 TwinStars with new Austro engines almost immediately now that it has gotten a type certificate from the European Aviation Safety Agency for the new combination. The company spent more than $60 million to bring the 170 horsepower Austro AE300 engine to market after Thielert, the previous engine supplier, went bankrupt last year, Diamond said in a news release. In addition to more powerful engines with more time allowed between overhauls, the DA42s the company will start shipping include Garmin’s GFC700 autopilot and the ability to upgrade to synthetic vision on the G1000 panel. FAA certification for the Austro-equipped TwinStar is likely to come soon. That’s good news for Thielert-powered TwinStar owners who have been unable to get parts for their engines since that company failed. Diamond says it will soon announce an engine upgrade program for existing owners, though it has not yet said how much it will cost.

A $61.4-million testing regime has paid off for Diamond Aircraft’s engine partner, Austro Engine, which last week gained European certification for the Austro AE 300 turbo-diesel engine. The engines are an option on the Diamond DA42 TwinStar, which would otherwise be equipped with Lycoming piston powerplants, the company said in a news release. The Austro engines will also be available as an option on the single-engine DA40 and DA50 models. And Diamond plans to offer a retrofit plan for owners of older TwinStars equipped with Thielert diesel engines. Thielert went bankrupt last year, leaving future support of those engines uncertain. The Austro AE 300 engine is rated at 170 horsepower, significantly more than the older Tielerts. And while Thielert engines had to have their gearboxes replaced every 300 hours, the Austro engines have a gearbox life of 2,400 hours.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for most of the nation’s general aviation makers. Since Cirrus Design announced 100 layoffs about 10 days ago, several other makers have followed suit and have either laid workers off or plan to do so shortly. The economic turmoil is hitting Cirrus, Mooney, Hawker Beechcraft, Cessna and Piper, all of which have announced various changes to cope with slowing orders. We round up the latest from each manufacturer below.

Cirrus
Cirrus laid off a total of 105 people from its plants in Duluth, Minn., and Grand Forks, N.D at the end of October. The company had previously laid off 100 people in September and its workforce now stands at about 1,100 people, the Associated Press reported. In addition, Cirrus has cut its production lines back to a three-day work week as its orders have slowed. The company is now making just a dozen planes per week.

Mooney
Last week, Mooney Airplane Co. announced it is halting aircraft production indefinitely and furloughing 229 workers, two-thirds of its payroll, as it tries to sell off excess inventory. Mooney’s cuts are perhaps the most drastic among general aviation makers, though they are not the largest in terms of the number of jobs affected. The company’s remaining 91 employees all work in its parts, repairs and customer service departments, the San Antonio Express-News reported. The severe cuts come as the company has struggled with sagging sales all year. It laid off 80 workers in June and last month it ousted chief executive Dennis Ferguson. The company would not say how many completed planes it had waiting for buyers, only that many of its potential customers have stopped shopping for planes amid the slowing economy. Mooney’s $14 million payroll means that local economies around its Kerrville, Texas, plant will feel the sting of the more than 200 employees now out of work.

Hawker Beechcraft
Head north to Wichita, Kan., and two plane makers are letting workers go. Hawker Beechcraft on Monday announced that 5 percent of its workers, or 490 people, would be laid off. For 409 of those workers, Friday was their last day on the job, the Wichita Eagle reported. Prior to the layoffs, Hawker Beechcraft employed about 9,800 people worldwide. The company has said it hasn’t needed to cut as deeply because much of its business is with international clients. Though with global economies also slumping, the company isn’t necessarily out of the woods yet, and the company has acknowledged that tough times are still ahead for it.

Cessna
Wichita’s other big plane manufacturer, Cessna, announced last week that layoffs were inevitable at its various sites. Cessna has not yet said how many people would be laid off, but it did say that sales and deliveries are slipping as buyers are putting their orders on hold, the Wichita Eagle reported. And as a result, some workforce reductions would be necessary. At Cessna’s plant in Bend, Ore., where the Cessna 350 and 400 are made, workers were told on Thursday to expect layoffs in the near future, Bend’s NBC affiliate reported. But company officials said they had not determined how many positions there would be cut.

Piper
Just one month ago, Piper Aircraft boasted that is sales were strong and that the company was on solid ground. But now it is cutting back its work week and has stopped hiring as its order book, like most other manufacturers’, has dried up. The company would not say how much it would slow down the production lines at its Vero Beach, Fla., plant, West Palm Beach’s NBC affiliate reported. But the company said it had “no plans” to lay off any of its roughly 1,000 workers. Piper got $32 million earlier this year from local economic development groups to stay in Vero Beach. Part of that deal included a pledge from Piper to hire about 400 new workers for its PiperJet program in the next four years.

Bombardier
The Canadian company provided one piece of good news last week when it confirmed that it is moving ahead with construction of a new assembly line in Wichita for its Learjet 85 and will hire as many as 700 people, the Associated Press reported. Bombardier’s jet sales have remained strong so far in the economic downturn, even as business jet sales at Cessna and Hawker have slipped. Part of that may be because of Bombardier’s relatively healthy order books for new commercial aircraft. The company expects to fill the new assembly line positions for the Learjet 85 in the next two years.

Despite the sagging economy and slumping aircraft sales, general aviation manufacturers tried to put their best feet forward at last week’s Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Expo in San Jose, Calif. Diamond Aircraft flew the newest version of the TwinStar there, powered by Lycoming IO-360 engines each rated at 180 horsepower for a maximum cruise speed of 180 knots, AOPA reported. The TwinStar’s future was in doubt after the demise of engine-maker Thielert earlier this year. The props on the new engines counter-rotate, so when one engine fails, there is no critical engine and flying the plane with the remaining engine should be easier. The company also redesigned the plane’s cowl and canopy to improve airflow and give people in the front seats more headroom. And Diamond is working on programs to allow owners of the old Thielert-powered planes to swap their engines for the new Lycomings or the forthcoming Austro AE300s that Diamond itself is developing. The Lycoming DA42 is expected to be certified early next year and will be priced at $600,000, including Garmin G1000 avionics. Buyers of the Cirrus SR20, SR22 and SR22 Turbo planes will have a new $15,000 option for an enhanced vision system using an infrared camera mounted on the left wing. The system will give pilots a view of what’s ahead of them in instrument conditions, the company said in a news release. That should make spotting the runway at the end of an approach easier, and the system will show clouds ahead when flying at night. Owners who already have a Cirrus with the Garmin Perspective system can get the infrared camera upgrade for the same price, which includes installation.

It may not mean any big changes in the short term, but a test flight of the single-engine Diamond D-Jet with an upgraded Williams engine means the plane could have more power in the future. The D-Jet first flew in April, but Diamond engineers decided to put in a slightly different Williams engine, capable of another 400 pounds of thrust, the company said in a news release. After several months of modifying parts of the plane, including adding winglets, the test flight last week went off without a hitch. Diamond expects to certify the 5-seat D-Jet late next year or in 2010, aiming it at turboprop pilots who want to step up to a jet, but don’t want the costs that come with twin-engine jets. For now, the plane will cruise at 240 knots at 25,000 feet. No word yet on what kind of performance improvements might eventually come when the upgraded engine isn’t derated and is allowed to run at full power.