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It's pretty funny to argue that "government action is required" when pretty much the reason that aviation piston engines largely are still based on designs from
by lutorm 5y ago
It's pretty funny to argue that "government action is required" when pretty much the reason that aviation piston engines largely are still based on designs from the 50s is precisely that the government will not let you use anything else.
In order to sell an assembled aircraft, with very few exceptions, it needs to be certified by the FAA, and convincing them to allow you to sell a new engine is sufficiently complicated and expensive that the very small airplane market does not make it worth it. (The total number of piston aircraft sold in 2020 was 1300. The best-selling aircraft, the Cessna 172, sold in the 200s.)
The only development of new piston aircraft engines are for experimental aircraft, where no FAA approval is needed. In that market you find electronically controlled engines with the same features as automobile engines, and not requiring leaded gas. But those airplanes cannot be sold except as kits.
Even engines that need 100-octane gas would benefit from unleaded fuel, because the lead deposits are very bad, forces the use of inferior, non-synthetic oil, makes valves stick, fouls spark plugs, and is generally nasty. Believe me, no one wants to use leaded gas if they can avoid it.
- jdavis703 5y agoThe FAA and the EPA have conflicting missions here. Unfortunately the public is more scared off death by air crash than death by pollution, even though air pollution is a bigger killer. This means if there’s a conflict, the FAA is probably going to win over the EPA.
- dreamcompiler 5y agoAnd as a result most small aircraft engines are naturally aspirated and have carburetors, even though turbo/super charging and fuel injection make even more sense in airplanes than they do in cars because of constant ambient pressure changes. It's hard to find a car with a carburetor these days; fuel injection is ubiquitous and cheap. Not so in airplanes. You can actually find fuel injected and/or turbo airplane engines but they're priced as if they're made of gold, so they're strictly for rich pilots. GA aircraft electronics are quite modern. But GA engines use 70-year-old technology. It's ridiculous.