The air path system dynamics is critical for the performance and emissions of turbo charged diesel engines. This paper proposes to approximate the inherently nonlinear dynamics of the air path by a linear parameter varying (LPV) model and to design the control law using a pole placement method for LPV systems. The plant properties and nominal closed loop system performance are investigated. Simulation results show that the controller can achieve satisfied performance. The control performance is validated on a dynamical test cell equipped with a BMW M47 diesel engine.