The writer was a new father when he dropped in on a hangar in Salinas, CA (sniffing distance from Gilroy, garlic capital of the world) and talked to some people who wanted to replace whiny quiche-eating turboprops with a manly turbocharged V-8 of the classic Detroit 90-degree persuasion. That quest is nearing its goal in the colder climate of Mississauga, Ontario. And now, the writer's son has his driver's license.

A Beech King Air modified by Stevens Aviation with a pair of Orenda OE-600 engines was headed for Mojave, CA, in mid-September for final tests leading to a Federal Aviation Administration STC late in the year. Canada's Air Wilga is within 30 days of an STC on the single-engine de Havilland Otter, according to Orenda marketing manager Derek Parker.

And, in the bustling and sophisticated metropolis of Devil'sLake, ND, Dakota Aero Manufacturing-with the assistance of "Mr. RPM," Dick MacCoon, whose connection with the V-8 concept goes back to Salinas, and the days of Thunder Engines-is preparing to do the same for the Twin Commander and Air Tractor.

Orenda Recip, Inc.-backed by the considerable resources of the Magellan Aerospace Corporation-also holds a potentially-$45 million order for new engines from Turkey Aircraft Industries (TAI).

The company (42% owned by Lockheed Martin, which helped establish it to co-produce F-16s) has chosen the 0OE-600 to power a new-design agricultural/fire-bombing aircraft, to be unveiled later this year. Orenda and Britten-Norman are studying the application of the OE-600 to the BN2T-4S Defender 4000 twin-engine utility aircraft.

600-hp Orenda OE-6-- piston engines power this King Air C90 under an STC.

While the XP-38 was the equivalent of the hottest aircraft today within 50 miles of the Atlanta Convention Center (Lockheed Martin's F-22), and its Allison/GE powerplants were regarded as new and exotic, the rationale for the OE-600 is more mundane.

The cold economic facts, argues Orenda, are that there are many serviceable aircraft out in the world which are threatened with premature grounding because of their engines. They include older turboprops like the King Air, which are becoming unattractive because of the price of engine overhauls; airplanes like the Otter, whose old round engines make interesting noises and eat up increasingly scarce spares; and numerous recip aircraft whose air-cooled flat engines never exactly provided P-38-like performance in the first place.

The turbocharged, 495-cubic-inch OE-600 springs into the gap between existing recip engines and lower-powered turboprops, with a unique combination of high performance and low cost. Engine history enthusiasts will note that its continuous rating works out to almost exactly 1-hp per cubic inch-equivalent to some of the best engines of the recip era.

Orenda can point to some solid achievements over the past year. Air Wilga's Otter conversion made its first flight in January. The company's new manufacturing plant in Debert, Nova Scotia, earned its Transport Canada manufacturing certificate in March: the factory can turn out 60 engines per month. In July, TC approved a creditable 1,500-hour time between overhauls for the OE-600.

The next step is to put the engine in the hands of operators. Orenda concedes that its STC dates have slipped several times: even this summer, the company was predicting certification for the King Air by the fall, rather than winter. The company says though, that there are no major hurdles to overcome, and attributes the delays to regulatory procedures. (In fairness to Orenda, delays seem to be endemic to certification programs today, and the OE-600 STC program involves four airplanes and four sites, in two different countries.)

The next step: a smaller V-6, using some OE-600 components and developing between 350 and 500 hp, aimed at smaller twins and singles.