Professional Aircraft Engines

Professional Aircraft Engines GmbH, trading as PACE Engines, is based in the Wirtschaftspark NÖ-Zentral in Sitzenberg-Reidling, Lower Austria, and is managed by Mario Lechner and Heike Vera Koch. The company develops, produces and sells propulsion systems and generator sets for UAVs based on small aircraft engines, and builds the engines on its own machinery. It is listed in the Austrian Economic Chamber’s Security, Defence & Aviation Technology Austria directory under air engines and drones, among other categories.

Its UAV drives are aimed at long mission duration per fuel mass and are adapted to the respective mission, with the company supporting integration including electromagnetic compatibility. The PACE 44 is a water-cooled two-cylinder in-line engine of 44 cc with multipoint fuel injection and an optional generator, which the company describes as particularly suited to UAVs with long operating times; it delivers 3 kW as the naturally aspirated PACE 44 NA and 5 kW as the supercharged PACE 44 S, with a total package weight of about 5 to 6 kg.

The larger PACE 263 is a 263 cc V12 engine with water cooling and multipoint injection, offered as the naturally aspirated PACE 263 NA with 18.4 kW and as the supercharged PACE 263 S with 29.4 kW. Besides UAVs, the engines are used in high-end large-scale models and ultralight aircraft of the 120 kg class, and a V12 variant is sold as a kart engine. PACE also offers product development, calculation and project management services as well as development, testing and homologation work in e-mobility.