Fuel Should Be On Your Mind

A panel of industry leaders at Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo sounds the warning on leaded avgas, and few folks were there to hear it.

Julie Boatman

Thursday, April 07, 2022 at 11:00 AM ET

Verified

Aviation leaders said at Sun 'n Fun that the looming sunset of leaded avgas is an issue everyone needs to pay attention to. [File photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

The EPA is expected to issue an endangerment finding by 2023, likely leading to a ban on leaded avgas (100LL) by 2030, which industry leaders deem an existential threat to general aviation.
A universal drop-in unleaded fuel replacement for all high-performance aircraft is still lacking, and localized bans or misfueling with lower-octane options pose significant safety risks like engine detonation.
Beyond fuel development, major challenges include establishing new distribution infrastructure, gaining widespread acceptance for existing proprietary unleaded fuels, and ensuring the continued availability of 100LL until a comprehensive solution is in place.

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If the impending sunset of leaded avgas is such an existential threat to general aviation, why was this panel of industry leaders speaking to only a few dozen pilots instead of a packed hangar?

At the GA Town Hall hosted by the Sun ’n Fun Aerospace Expo on Wednesday at the Lakeland Aero Club in Florida, the heads of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) gathered to address what Mark Baker, president and CEO of AOPA, called “probably the single most threatening [issue] to GA,” the impending sunset of leaded avgas, nominally the 100LL and previous fuels we’ve used to power the general aviation fleet since high-octane juice was introduced during World War II.