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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Mildly Interesting
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Little known fact. Airplanes still use leaded fuel. I’ll bet that the blood levels for all of these families are elevated. Not a great place to raise a kid.
Clarification: Only piston aircraft require leaded fuel. Which is unfortunately a pretty big part of the general aviation market, but similarly sized turboprops do also exist (though are more expensive) and it doesn't apply to modern commercial aviation at all.
Further clarification: Only gasoline powered aircraft without the Auto Fuel STC require leaded fuel.
Although, there is an initiative underway to fully phase out leaded avgas. G100UL is the FAA approved formulation. Exciting time and long overdue.
There are also some plans in the works to fully end leaded avgas in the 2030s.
No, G100UL is still going through the FAA approval process. But it's been approved for many specific engines already, but the majority still aren't allowed to use it. For a full FAA approval we could be waiting another 6-9 years.
The Next big problem is availability, which will only come with time. There are only a few airfields around that stock the fuel. (And from what I can tell.. none that are here in Australia)
"FAA approved STCs for the use of G100UL in all general aviation piston airplanes in September 2022"
https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/gami-begins-g100ul-stc-sales/
Interesting, now I guess we need general availability and maybe a ban on leaded fuels. Still gonna take some number of years before that happens, especially given the vast majority of oil companies don't really care all that much.
Also now the FAA approved it, we just need every other agency in every other country to also approve it, should be a lot easier to do so now the FAA has and has the test data to offer.
Except republicans are seriously trying to require that all airports that receive federal funding to still offer leaded gas. For reasons.
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4165287-congress-poised-to-mandate-continued-sales-of-leaded-aviation-gasoline/
There is an increasing number of piston aircraft that have Diesel engines, and run on jet fuel.
Yep, and the FAA is taking it's sweet time to approve a new unleaded fuel for general aviation that shows a lot of promise called G100UL. It's estimated it could take another 6-9 years. Otherwise it's currently only approved for specific planes and not available at most airports and aerodromes.
It's approved as of last fall, but the FAA spent well over a decade stonewalling it with unnecessary bureaucracy.
Now we're left with the chicken-and-egg problem of the market, where nobody will offer unleaded because it's more expensive, but it's expensive because it's not widely used. The feds should subsidize it down to $4/gal for 5 years to get it off the ground.
Disgusting.