A Colorado airport said it was powerless to stop using leaded fuel. After a public outcry, it’s racing to get rid of it
A Colorado airport said it was powerless to stop using leaded fuel. After a public outcry, it’s racing to get rid of it
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.
How in the world is are we still using leaded fuel and can’t stop for almost another decade. WTF?
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
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.
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.