3 ms·

Just wanted to add that it's planned to be phased out by 2030 now[0]. Kind of insane they're giving them that long if you ask me but I guess it's better than no

• paulmd 5y ago
  General aviation (contrast to "commercial aviation"), which is the only place leaded gasoline is really used even within the industry, died in the 1970s. Not sure of the exact bill but the FAA drastically tightened approval processes to the extent that essentially only commercial aviation has enough volume to make it financially viable to get through the regulatory approval process. There's a few exceptions, like Cirrus and maybe Diamond, but almost all general aviation aircraft either predate those regulations entirely, or are in hardware configurations that predate those regulations and have been grandfathered. Sometimes - rarely - you get a new engine or whatever, but it's very rare that anyone goes for approval of a whole new airframe or anymore. It's the same reason Boeing prefers to add a dumb computer-assist system on the 737 MAX instead of just changing their airframe - change the airframe and you have to do a complete re-approval process. In short, they are still using leaded gasoline because they're still using 1950s and 1960s engine designs (and in many cases, actual 60s/70s-production engines and airframes) because the FAA approval process makes it impossible/prohibitively uneconomical to replace them. Not saying removing lead isn't important, but bear in mind this is essentially gutting public access to aerospace and aviation. We've already seen the loss of R/C aircraft as a hobby, the "feeders" into aerospace are getting pretty slim indeed.