FAA Receives Unleaded Fuels Proposals in Safe Fuel Initiative

GJHatcher — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 18:29:41 +0000

FAA Receives Unleaded Fuels Proposals

The Federal Aviation Administration announced today it has received ten replacement fuel proposals from producers Afton Chemical Company, Avgas LLC, Shell, Swift Fuels and a consortium of BP, TOTAL and Hjelmco, for further evaluation in the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI). The industry-government initiative is designed to help the general aviation industry transition to an unleaded aviation gasoline. The FAA will be assessing the viability of the candidate fuels to determine which fuels may be part of the first phase of laboratory testing at the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center.

The goal is to have a new unleaded fuel by 2018.

“We’re committed to getting harmful lead out of general aviation fuel,” said Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This work will benefit the environment and provide a safe and available fuel for our general aviation community.”

The 167,000 general aviation aircraft in the US that rely on 100 low lead aviation gasoline for safe operation are running on the only remaining transportation fuel in the United States that contains the addition of lead.

Commercial planes have never used leaded gas.

Congress authorized $6 million for the fiscal year 2014 budget to support the PAFI test program at the FAA Technical Center. PAFI was established to facilitate the development and deployment of a new unleaded aviation gasoline with the least impact on the existing piston-engine aircraft fleet.

The FAA asked fuel producers on June 10, 2013 to submit proposals for replacement fuels by July 1, 2014. The goal is to identify, select, and provide fleetwide certification for fuels determined to have the lowest impact on the general aviation fleet.

The FAA will analyze the candidate fuels in terms of their impact on the existing fleet, the production and distribution infrastructure, their impact on the environment, their toxicology and the cost of aircraft operations.

The post FAA Receives Unleaded Fuels Proposals in Safe Fuel Initiative first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

Plane loses Engine; Downed Starlings Lose Nesting Area

GJHatcher — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:16:25 +0000

What: Northwest Airlines Flight #5808 leaving Little Rock National Airport
Where: Little Rock National Airport
When: Tue September 23, 2008 –
Why: En route, the plane struck and killed 139 Starlings. The sheer quantity of their bodies closed a runway for 40 minutes. One of the birds flew into an engine, which is something that can easily down a plane. After striking the flock of birds, the flight returned to the airport on one engine.

The solution to the problem of birds is to remove a stand of trees at the base of the runway, and also in parking lots.

The post Plane loses Engine; Downed Starlings Lose Nesting Area first appeared on George Hatcher's Air Flight Disaster.

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FAA Receives Unleaded Fuels Proposals in Safe Fuel Initiative

Plane loses Engine; Downed Starlings Lose Nesting Area