How in the world is are we still using leaded fuel and can’t stop for almost another decade. WTF?
this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
109 points (98.2% liked)
United States | News & Politics
7242 readers
283 users here now
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
Old airplane engine designs were created assuming leaded fuel, and the slight reduction in horsepower associated with pre-2022 unleaded fuels was a problem for them. So the phaseout is just getting started, with it happening in only a handful of airports to date
But leaded gas in cars was banned in '96. Why has it taken them 27 years to begin phasing things out for airplanes?
Because all those old cars are now off the road or running gutless on unleaded fuel.
But you can’t just run an airplane “slower” or it falls out of the sky.
On the other hand, mmwave radio issues are in these exact same planes, so maybe we should just admit that they’re no longer safe to fly.
Also airplanes live longer and the rich dudes who own them tend to be conservative.
They may also be brain dead from lead exposure.
There was also an argument for valve seat protection afforded by lead gas, but they should eat the cost of engine rebuilds and be forced to comply. Especially as many of those planes are for hobby anyway.
And IIRC, the lead contributed to long term reliability of the engine too, something you definitely want to have in a single-engine plane. You don't want to switch fuels and end up with Cessna's falling out of the sky.
Ultimately, bureaucracy.
The aviation industry is second only to nuclear in regulatory conservatism. They grind through change slowly, methodically, and expensively.
Every engine manufacturer went through a lengthy certification process to get their engines approved to run on avgas. If you want to burn a slightly different kind of fuel, you either need to go through that entire process again, or you have to convince the FAA that there is so little difference in the new fuel that it will perform identically in every engine that has ever been certified on the old fuel.
They finally achieved that second one earlier this year, after decades of work.
This makes the most sense by far. I think it has a lot to do with we just don’t put the money towards research and development we did in the 40’s and 50’s. Sure we still R&D but no one is dreaming up completely new ideas from the ground up and getting funding.
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.
Rich people are generally who own planes. No surprise they excluded themselves from regulations against leaded fuel.
Cause the people getting lead poisoning are quite literally beneath them.
I don't understand how the most viable solution is unleaded avgas and not a widespread transition away from spark ignition. Jet-A is cheaper than 100LL, let alone 100UL, but planes equipped with equivalent Jet-A diesel engines have significantly lower fuel burn and much higher range.
I would think that flight schools and other operators would be pushing their fleets to diesels just for the lower operating costs.
Another issue is that so many small airplanes use engines designed in the 40s and 50s. Sure there have been some updates over the years but the basics havent changed because of the testing requirements from the FAA on new engine designs. Aviation need to become faster at bringing affordable updates to aircraft that dont also limit capability
That definitely made it a lot harder to end the use of lead. Those old engines account for about 1/3 of the small planes in use, and made it a lot harder to develop an unleaded aviation gas suitable for all planes. (There is a widely available one which can be used in the other 2/3 already)
Lead free a requirement by 2031 WTF that is 30 years too late.
That's why you should see if your local government can force a phase-out sooner where you live. So far as I am aware, only a couple airports in California and the one in Colorado have done so.
Funny what the threat of a billion dollar lawsuit can accomplish.