The leaders of major general aviation trade associations and the FAA’s Aircraft Certification Service who comprise the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) executive committee briefed pilots July 24 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh on the effort to phase out leaded aviation fuel by 2030.

Lirio Liu, executive director of the FAA Aircraft Certification Service, and Mark Baker, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) president and CEO, serve as co-chairs of the executive committee.

For the first time in public since the EAGLE initiative was announced in February 2022, the leadership brought forward four developers of candidate unleaded fuels that are being advanced on two certification tracks to report on their progress. Representatives of each developer received 10 min. to make their presentations.

Two industry partnerships are developing high-octane unleaded fuels under the industry-government Piston Engine Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI) and two via the FAA supplemental type certification (STC) process. The PAFI developers are LyondellBasell-VP Racing and Afton Chemical-Phillips 66; the STC developers are Swift Fuels and General Aviation Modifications Inc. (GAMI).

GAMI received broad FAA authorization of its G100UL fuel across the U.S. piston-engine aircraft fleet last September; it is now trying to gain acceptance by aircraft and engine manufacturers and distributors.

“We’re going to have a solution,” promised General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) President and CEO Pete Bunce, an EAGLE executive committee member. “The marketplace is going to decide which of these fuels makes it. Can it be multiple fuels right now that comingle with each other, [that] comingle with 100 Low Lead? Maybe, but the marketplace makes the decision.”