“When I looked at the costs of operating a 20-year-old aircraft with av gas 100 low-lead, and the maintenance costs, I found that the Diamond Twin Star will pay for itself,” said Dave King, chief executive officer of Last Frontier Air Ventures.

Take Flight, owned by Last Frontier Air Ventures and located at Merrill Field in Anchorage, is the first in Alaska — and the first commercially approved flight school in the United States — to use the twin-diesel Diamond Twin Star DA-42, according to King.

The $550,000, sleek aerodynamically designed aircraft has a composite plastic fuselage, with wings complete with winglets. The Diamond Twin Star was designed by an Austrian company and manufactured in London, Ontario, Canada.

The low-wing, four-seat aircraft is complete with autopilot, a fully digital electronic instrument panel, in addition to its two turbocharged 135-horsepower engines.

Toby Foster sits in the spacious leather seated cockpit at the controls of the Diamond Twin Star in early February, readying the diesel-powered aircraft for a demonstration flight. PHOTO/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

“The Beechcraft Duchess, also a twin-engine aircraft used as a standard for teaching twin-engine and complex flying in flight schools nationally, uses 22 gallons an hour of 100 low-lead av gas,” King said. “The Twin Star, on the other hand, uses only 11 gallons an hour of jet A fuel, and there is $1 a gallon difference between the two,” with jet A costing less.

King said with an average flight time of 75 hours a month, the Duchess would cost him $4,200 a month, compared to the Diamond Twin Star at $3,500.

“Not to mention that the Twin Star has a three-year warranty, and the engines only need to be overhauled after 2,400 hours of use,” he said.

Take Flight's Diamond is serial number 007, the seventh off the flight line in Canada, and one of only a handful flying in the United States.

In the air, the plane flies like a dream, as the author can attest after taking the controls.

The plane is smooth on the controls, quiet and comfortable. Covered in leather, the four wrap-around seats look and feel like they suited for Porsche sports car. Comfortable seating is necessary, as this version of the D42 has a 72-gallon capacity that could get you from Merrill Field to Nome in one shot, no stops, cruising at less than 197 mph. According to Dave McKay, director of fixed-wing operation for Last Frontier, the aircraft can remain aloft for more than five hours if the power is reduced to cut fuel consumption.

“This is a sexy airplane,” said Toby Foster, chief flight instructor at Take Flight. “But it is ugly, in a traditional airplane design sort of way.”

The highlight of the Diamond Twin Star is in the cockpit, according to Foster. The fully integrated glass cockpit, with a primary flight display and a multi-function display screen for navigation, fit nicely on the panel under the single-bubble canopy.

Built in London in Ontario, Canada, the $550,000 Diamond Star DA-42 runs on jet A fuel. The fuel is cheaper and more available than other traditional aircraft fuels now at most airports worldwide. PHOTO/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

Although the aircraft will be used for flight instruction at $285 an hour, the aircraft will not be available for rent or lease for solo flights.

“Economically speaking, and internationally, this type of technology is going to be the wave of the future,” King said. “It is getting harder and harder to find 100 low-lead (av gas), but you can find jet A almost anywhere you go.”