A Pilot's View on Finding an Unleaded Aviation Fuel

Paul Bertorelli is a pilot who writes for AVweb, an online site that describes itself as the "world's premier, independent aviation news resource." The following videos, entitled "The Long, Twisted and Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas" are narrated by Bertorelli. They provide detail and historical perspective on the ongoing use of leaded fuel by the aviation sector.

• Part 1 (14 minutes 22 seconds) is available here.
• Part 2 (15 minutes 15 seconds) is available here.

As explained by AVweb, "For decades, the general aviation industry has struggled with finding a replacement for leaded avgas without success. The biggest driver of this failure is that there's no reason to do so because the industry has been given an exemption to continue using lead. In this two-part series, AVweb's Paul Bertorelli explains how industry inertia and bureaucratic foot dragging killed efforts to eliminate lead from aviation fuel."

In his presentation, Bertorelli discusses two of the programs launched by the FAA to eliminate this toxic fuel. The Piston Aviation Fuel Initiative (PAFI) claimed it would identify an unleaded fuel replacement by 2018 but failed to do so. In February of 2022, the FAA launched its most recent initiative, Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE). The agency is now saying it will take until 2030 to find an unleaded fuel.

In his concluding remarks, Bertorelli states, "It should be obvious by now that the entire avgas replacement effort is mired in inertia, anchored in FAA and EPA ambivalence towards eliminating lead. The avgas producers—that would be Phillips, Chevron, Exxon, and Shell—benefit from this muddle and have a vested interest in the status quo."

"Despite its small volume, leaded avgas turns a tidy profit and it's a protected market because no new entrants will take on fooling with tetraethyl lead. So like PAFI before it, EAGLE is likely to be a slow motion noise machine. Keep that in mind when you read news stories suggesting that this time we're really—no kidding—serious about eliminating lead from avgas." (Part 2, 14 min. 10 sec)