Six months ago, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport Director Paul Anslow didn’t want to talk about leaded fuel. He said he had "zero control" over the airport's use of it. Today, the airport is racing to become the first in Colorado to completely phase the fuel out.

Key things here:

The gas used in the small planes with piston-driven propellers has lead in it. Yeah, the same stuff that was banned from automotive fuel because it causes brain damage in kids.

That lead in the fuel airplanes burn? It ends up in kids blood

There’s a new fuel mix starting to be available which doesn’t contain lead, and which works for all airplanes. It’s available in some places in the US, but not all of them yet.

The FAA has a plan to make going lead-free a requirement by 2031…but right now there isn’t anything stopping airport owners (often local governments) from making the switch happen faster. Only thing which might stop this is that the Republican version of the FAA reauthorization bill contains a requirement that airports keep on selling leaded fuel forever, so it’s also important to stop that from becoming law.

  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
    3·
    1 year ago

    The most promising short-term approach is switching from spark ignition to compression ignition: Jet fuel is very comparable to diesel fuel, and doesn’t have the same problems with lead that avgas has. It has a higher energy density, providing lower fuel burn and longer range. And it is significantly cheaper than 100LL, let alone 100UL.

    Europe has a significant number of diesel-engined general aviation aircraft burning Jet-A. Several manufacturers have received supplementary type certificates to swap out gasoline engines for diesel in many of the most popular GA aircraft.

    Longer term, electric and hydrogen are being researched, but it will be a long time before they are viable options in the GA fleet.