Diamond DA50 RG

Overview

The Diamond DA50 RG is a five-seat, single-engine high-performance retractable composite aircraft, the production realisation of a model name that drifted across more than a decade of false starts at Diamond before reaching customers. The DA50 designation was first floated around 2007 as a planned Super Star concept; production stalled multiple times. The aircraft that finally shipped is a clean-sheet design powered by the 300 hp Continental CD-300 turbodiesel, with hydraulic trailing-link retract gear, gull-wing forward doors, and full Garmin G1000 NXi avionics with GFC 700 autopilot. EASA type certificate awarded 9 September 2020; FAA certification followed 25 July 2023, with first U.S. customer deliveries in summer 2023. Only one variant ships: there is no DA50 family, the RG is the line.

For the GA buyer, the DA50 RG occupies a niche in the five-seat high-performance single bracket with two distinguishing characteristics. It is the only modern clean-sheet design in this bracket and the only Jet-A1 piston-diesel entrant. The natural cross-shop set is the Cirrus SR22 (four-seat composite, parachute, fixed gear, avgas), the Beechcraft Bonanza 36 (six-seat retractable benchmark, avgas), the Mooney Acclaim Ultra and Cessna TTx (the other piston retracts at this speed envelope, both now out of production), and the pressurized Piper M350 at the upper end. List price of approximately $1.15M base or $1.24M as-equipped places it within $50,000 to $100,000 of a Diamond DA62 twin and well above SR22 territory, which is a real point of internal-line and competitive friction.

Key Features for GA Buyers

• Jet-A1 fuel economics. Avgas is disappearing from many international markets and increasingly expensive where it remains. Jet-A is universally available and meaningfully cheaper. Per-mile fuel cost is dramatically lower than a comparable avgas single at similar speeds, and the aircraft can refuel anywhere a turbine can.
• Single-lever FADEC engine management. No mixture, no propeller, no carb heat, no leaning. One throttle. Pilot reports describe startup and runup as stone simple, and IFR cockpit workload is meaningfully lower than a conventional avgas single. Reduces the transition-pilot error surface materially.
• Owner-flyable retractable gear. Hydraulic trailing-link gear with conservative VLO and VLE of 162 KIAS gives the speed and efficiency of retract without Mooney-class cockpit demands. Trailing-link geometry is forgiving on landing.
• 20,000 ft ceiling with real climb performance. Twin turbochargers on the CD-300 keep the aircraft climbing 500 fpm and faster at altitudes most piston singles cannot reach. Routine FL180 to FL200 cruising gets above weather and most GA traffic.

Trade-offs

• Low U.S. fleet count and a thin diesel-piston service ecosystem. FAA certification is recent (mid-2023) and the U.S. fleet is small. The Continental diesel service network is materially thinner than the Lycoming and Continental avgas world, and rural shops may not be equipped to service a CD-300.
• TBR economics, not TBO. The CD-300 is a replacement-cycle engine. At 2,000 hours (extended in 2022 from the original 1,200) the engine is replaced via Continental’s factory exchange program rather than overhauled in the field. Per-hour reserves work out cleaner than avgas overhauls in many cases, but the all-in lifecycle hour cost needs honest math against a Lycoming or Continental avgas equivalent. Cheaper fuel does not automatically beat replacement-engine economics.
• Transition training is non-trivial. FADEC, single-lever throttle, Jet-A handling, and owner-flyable retract together represent a meaningful step up for a pilot moving from a fixed-gear avgas single. Insurance underwriters reflect this in premium and minimum-experience requirements.
• Useful load is moderate, not generous. Published 1,232 lb. With 49 USG of Jet-A in the tanks (around 331 lb) the cabin payload is approximately 900 lb. Five seats are real; five people with bags are not.

See Also

• Diamond DA62 – twin-diesel sister, seven-seat. The natural step-up for buyers prioritizing twin-engine redundancy on the same Jet-A platform. Compare
• Diamond Twin Star – DA42 twin-diesel, four-seat. The DA50 RG’s spiritual sibling for buyers cross-shopping single-vs-twin Jet-A configurations. Compare
• Diamond Star DA40 – entry single in the same Diamond line, the typical owner-progression precedent. Compare
• Cirrus SR 22 – the dominant four-seat composite single cross-shop. Opposite philosophy on every axis: avgas, fixed gear, ballistic parachute, conventional engine management. Compare
• Beech Bonanza 36 – the legacy six-seat retractable benchmark in this performance class, with the avgas Continental IO-550. The reference point for buyers evaluating retract economics. Compare