Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has completed the first long-distance flight of an airplane powered by a lead-free, renewable fuel.
Embry-Riddle is testing an environmentally friendly aviation fuel produced by Swift Enterprises in a bid to end its reliance on leaded aviation gas and to help pave the way for others in the general aviation community, university officials said. Engineers in the Eagle Flight Research Center at the Daytona Beach, Fla., campus have been testing the Swift fuel as a replacement for standard 100LL aviation gas for the last six months.
An Embry-Riddle test pilot flew a twin-engine Seminole aircraft on a 2,200-mile round trip from Daytona Beach to Oshkosh, Wis., where the plane drew crowds at AirVenture, which was held July 26-Aug. 1. The plane flew with Swift fuel in its left engine and 100LL in the right engine. Embry-Riddle was able to use the new fuel as a drop-in replacement for 100LL without having to modify the aircraft in any way to accommodate the new fuel.
The flight was like any other, says pilot Mikhael Ponso, except for “one unique thing – the engine with the Swift fuel had 10 to 15% less fuel consumption per volume than the other engine burning 100LL during the cross-country flight.”
The flight to Oshkosh followed the successful demonstration earlier this year at Sun ‘n-Fun at Lakeland, Fla. During this display, the aircraft flew in front of the crowd each day prior to the air show. On several days, the aircraft was flown with Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, the first person to perform a solo New York-to-Paris crossing of the Atlantic in an airplane.
Lindbergh said, “Swift fuel performed perfectly on the three flights I took at Sun ‘n-Fun, and represents a viable and sustainable fuel for the future of general aviation.”
Embry-Riddle pilots previously tested the environmentally friendly fuel in the Seminole in standard flight operations, including climbs to 14,000 feet, steep turns, and midair engine shutdowns.
Three decades after the Clean Air Act banned leaded gas in cars, more than 200,000 general aviation aircraft still burn leaded fuel, which has been cited as a public health hazard. But momentum is building to find lead-free fuel alternatives for general aviation aircraft.
Small aircraft burn nearly 190 million gallons of aviation fuel a year, contributing 45% of the lead emissions in the nation’s air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Removing lead from airplane fuel has been technically challenging, because lead prevents detonation in airplane engines, which have much higher compression than car engines.
Embry-Riddle chose to investigate Swift fuel because the company’s non-leaded fuel has passed the FAA’s detonation test and gets more miles per gallon than current aviation fuel. The fuel is a simple binary fuel and can be synthesized from a variety of renewable biomass sources.
To learn more about the test flight and Embry-Riddle’s desire to transform its training aircraft into a “green fleet,” contact Dr. Richard “Pat” Anderson at [email protected] or 386-226-6917.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 170 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information: EmbryRiddle.edu.
Finally a gas alternative and the comments are on car gas? Whats the problem? Someone makes a cleaner better solution and well maybe the sand gets in your eyes when you bury your head in the past geez this swift fuel should rebuild aviation not scare folks into talking about car gas.
Less and less automative gas (mogas) is found without Ethanol, and per Peterson’s site “DO NOT burn fuel with ethanol in your airplane. Revert to 100LL if ethanol free gasoline cannot be found.” With MoGas becoming harder to find in an ethanol free form, it’s not a sound long-term solution either.
Good “first step.” Now let’s see some extensive testing with high horsepower, large bore engines such as something like a Continental GSTIO-520 putting out 375 HP.
“Small aircraft burn nearly 190 million gallons of aviation fuel a year” Wonder why the FAA and other industry representatives continue to say that GA burns around 300 million gallons of avgas / yr? At the Swift Fuels presentation at Sun’n Fun they claimed that they wouldn’t be ready to produce 300 mgy of 100SF for a decade probably. Since 80% of GA could be using 91 AKI mogas and represent 40+% of the total fuel demand, that means the amount of 100 octane avgas needed is probably less than 120 million gallons per year. Hope Swift and GAMI are using the right demand projections in their business plans.
There has been a lead-free aviation fuel for nearly 30 years, it is produced in massive quantities, is far less expensive than 100LL and available at tens of thousands of locations – it is called Mogas. 70%-80% of all legacy G.A. aircraft and nearly all new LSA airplanes have engines that run best on 91 octane, ethanol-free, lead-free gasoline with nothing more than a paper STC from Petersen Aviation. Plenty of suppliers of this fuel may be found at PURE-GAS.org. Regarding 100SF – what were the power settings on the two engines of the Seminole, one running on 100SF and the other on 100LL? Have dynamometer tests been performed on the engine to measure performance and fuel burn in a controlled environment? How did Embry-Riddle pilots handle the fact that 100SF, according to the recent FAA test document, weighs 16% more per gallon than 100LL? Did this not require changes to the aircraft’s weight and balance diagram? It all sounds encouraging, but anecdotal at best. Let’s see more science on 100SF and less hype.