3 ms·

DC-3's burn leaded gasoline. Older piston aircraft like the DC-3 are why we can't simply ban leaded gasoline in aviation. There are just too many around in acti

DC-3's burn leaded gasoline. Older piston aircraft like the DC-3 are why we can't simply ban leaded gasoline in aviation. There are just too many around in active use doing important things.

jillesvangurp 5y ago
We can ban it for newer aircraft; or at least discourage it in the same way that happened with cars. That way, the market will do the rest and eventually it will be quite hard to find leaded fuel. From an environmental point of view, a handful of historical planes still burning the stuff when they fly occasionally should not be a huge issue. The DC3 is awesome. A few years ago, they flew a few C47s (the military version of the DC3) to Normandy that saw service in WW II. Amazing machines. Looks like a lot of fun to fly them as well.
- upofadown 5y ago
  >From an environmental point of view, a handful of historical planes still burning the stuff when they fly occasionally should not be a huge issue. From a random forum[1]: >Northern Air Cargo and Everets Air Freight (DC-3's, DC-4's, DC-6's etc.etc.) in Alaska burn two thirds of the 100LL produced in the United States. ... where 100LL is leaded gasoline. It is more or less the same here in Canada where almost all bush aviation runs on leaded gasoline. The remote communities served by such historical aircraft simply can not afford to do an instant upgrade of the fleet they depend on. They can't afford to do any upgrade really. It is well past time to start addressing the actual issues here. [1] https://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?23095-The-Future-of-100LL https://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?23095-The-Futu...
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Pretty tricky to do a technical fix for this, the problem is that the valve seats are not going to survive conversion to unleaded and re-manufacturing the individual heads or making inserts is going to be prohibitively expensive for those parties that still rely on the DC-3, which typically are not amongst the wealthiest entities. I wouldn't be surprised if enforcing this would cause more deaths than you'd ever save by using leaded gasoline for those planes. They're quite literally the lifeline for plenty of places.
magicalhippo 5y ago
Don't have to ban it, just tax it more and more each year.
paunchy 5y ago
The vast majority of general aviation aircraft fly with 1950s technology air-cooled engines that also require 100 octane "low-lead" gasoline as certified. That includes Cessnas built in the 2000s. It's not just old planes like the DC-3.

DC-3's burn leaded gasoline. Older piston aircraft like the DC-3 are why we can't simply ban leaded gasoline in aviation. There are just too many around in active use doing important things.

jillesvangurp 5y ago

We can ban it for newer aircraft; or at least discourage it in the same way that happened with cars. That way, the market will do the rest and eventually it will be quite hard to find leaded fuel. From an environmental point of view, a handful of historical planes still burning the stuff when they fly occasionally should not be a huge issue. The DC3 is awesome. A few years ago, they flew a few C47s (the military version of the DC3) to Normandy that saw service in WW II. Amazing machines. Looks like a lot of fun to fly them as well.

upofadown 5y ago
>From an environmental point of view, a handful of historical planes still burning the stuff when they fly occasionally should not be a huge issue. From a random forum[1]: >Northern Air Cargo and Everets Air Freight (DC-3's, DC-4's, DC-6's etc.etc.) in Alaska burn two thirds of the 100LL produced in the United States. ... where 100LL is leaded gasoline. It is more or less the same here in Canada where almost all bush aviation runs on leaded gasoline. The remote communities served by such historical aircraft simply can not afford to do an instant upgrade of the fleet they depend on. They can't afford to do any upgrade really. It is well past time to start addressing the actual issues here. [1] https://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?23095-The-Future-of-100LL https://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?23095-The-Futu...
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Pretty tricky to do a technical fix for this, the problem is that the valve seats are not going to survive conversion to unleaded and re-manufacturing the individual heads or making inserts is going to be prohibitively expensive for those parties that still rely on the DC-3, which typically are not amongst the wealthiest entities. I wouldn't be surprised if enforcing this would cause more deaths than you'd ever save by using leaded gasoline for those planes. They're quite literally the lifeline for plenty of places.

magicalhippo 5y ago

Don't have to ban it, just tax it more and more each year.

paunchy 5y ago

The vast majority of general aviation aircraft fly with 1950s technology air-cooled engines that also require 100 octane "low-lead" gasoline as certified. That includes Cessnas built in the 2000s. It's not just old planes like the DC-3.