3 ms·
Uh, no. It's because when plane engines break they fall out of the sky onto things. They break when they aren't correctly modified to take the new fuel. It i
by hwillis 2y ago
Uh, no. It's because when plane engines break they fall out of the sky onto things. They break when they aren't correctly modified to take the new fuel. It is not very realistic to mandate conversions for all of the (often quite old) planes today- like from manufacturers going out of business. It is not trivial to convert an engine, fuel system etc. and also meet the same performance so that things like stall and thrust and altitude are still accurate across the important ranges.
In practice, it's a choice between:
1. Banning or buying out older planes at not-insignificant cost
2. Swapping fuels and doing your best to get people to fix their planes, causing crashes
3. Playing it slow, requiring new planes to be compatible with lead-free fuel, building new lead-free infrastructure, and gradually encouraging people to transition
Currently we're doing 3 until it's determined that 1 is cheap enough to do. That said the FAA could certainly be doing more, but that's much more (IMO) on them not taking the issue seriously than on voters being appeased. Its a national agency, not the local school board.
- Retric 2y agoLead in cars was banned in the 1970’s, any actual transition would have long been played out by now. A “this will be outlawed in 30 years” would have hit in 20 years ago. Instead the people convinced regulators to simply wait until some hypothetical perfect alternative could be made.
- potato3732842 2y agoI really have a hard time taking such opinions seriously. The kind of people screeching about the safety of a small user of lead are the same kind of people who will screech about planes falling out of the sky at marginally higher or lower rates. There isn't political will to pay your way out of the problem or screw people over at the barrel of a gun so the end result is you can't have your cake and eat it too. You may as well complain about the laws of physics.
- Retric 2y agoSome, Aircraft manufactured after the 1970’s are still using leaded fuel. Yet, Private Jets aren’t using leaded fuel. It’s just piston aircraft and thus a fraction of general aviation who benefits by avoiding a transition that could have finished a long time ago. I don’t care about people using those aircraft, but the public is being harmed at 2 grams / gallon that shit adds up quickly around many small airports.