Ownership

The first FAA-approved 100 octane unleaded fuel is virtually indistinguishable from 100LL in operation and offers some important benefits beyond the environmental ones. Rick Durden, a regular contributor to our sister publication Aviation Consumer, logged 3.3 hours in a Beech C55 Baron with one engine running on General Aviation Modifications Inc.’s (GAMI’s) G100UL and the […]

Aircraft operators in California will likely be the first to be able to fill their tanks with unleaded 100 octane aviation fuel. General Aviation Modifications Inc. head of engineering George Braly told AVweb the company has signed a licensing agreement with petroleum company Vitol Aviation and that company is now in the process of producing the first large-scale batches of G100UL® avgas. At this time, the […]

British Airways is among the investors in a $200 million plant that will make sustainable aviation fuel from ethanol derived from corn. The plant officially opened in rural Georgia last week and will produce about 10 million gallons of jet fuel and diesel. As electric cars and trucks displace gasoline-powered vehicles there will be massive […]

The City of Long Beach, California, is offering to pay piston aircraft operators to switch to unleaded fuel. Last week the city council of the Los Angeles suburb voted to have the city cover the $2-$4 per gallon difference between Swift Fuels and 100LL. In November, the city council voted to cover the cost of […]

Phillips 66 has “paused” evaluation of its unleaded avgas alternative after what sources have told AVweb was a major test failure. Phillips 66 confirmed to AVweb that evaluation of the fuel it is developing with Afton Chemicals through the Piston Engine Aviation Fuels Initiative has been suspended, at least temporarily. “We can confirm that PAFI […]

Bruce Gullingsrud represents a legion of unsung heroes in aviation—he’s a career maintenance technician. His life’s work recently received recognition from the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which awarded Gullingsrud one of nine Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Awards for 2023. “I’m sneaking up on a half century of doing this kind of work,” […]

Santa Clara County officials are pushing back against proposed legislation in the FAA reauthorization bills that would require them to reintroduce leaded aviation fuel.  Calling it a “step backwards” for Santa Clara County airports, Local News Matters reported local officials are actively opposing two bills in the House and Senate. The Senate bill mandates airports to continue offering […]

The city council of Livermore, California, has approved a resolution that would require the FBO at the city-owned airport to provide unleaded fuel within 24 months. According to a story in local online news outlet Pleasanton Weekly, the resolution amends the airport’s “minimum standards for commercial aeronautical activities” with the new requirement to make unleaded […]

Reuters has reported that the U.S. Treasury will release guidance by the end of this week on the issue of subsidies for using corn-based ethanol for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Producers of corn-based ethanol fuel see aviation applications as one of the few pathways for growing their industry with the expanding of electric vehicles stemming […]

A report published yesterday (Dec. 12) by Alaska Public Media notes that the state’s legislators are pushing back on the recent EPA endangerment finding on leaded aviation gasoline. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan have filed a resolution to reverse the EPA finding. Murkowski said, “This EPA decision could have a deeply negative impact on […]