General Aviation Modifications, Inc., or GAMI, recently received an FAA STC for its G100UL unleaded aviation fuel for use in some of the company’s Lycoming o-320, O-360, and 10-360 piston engines. The FAA’s Approved Model List STC, or AML, means specific engines and aircraft are first approved. The AML will expand based on additional data and testing.
GAMI president, Tim Roehl, told General Aviation News that AML-STCs are the “beginning of the end” for leaded aviation gasoline. Company officials feel that the existing blue 100LL aviation gas will disappear from the market once the FAA expands the AML and production of the G100UL aviation gas expands to meet market demands. GAMI believes that it can provide the demand for high octane aviation gasoline within the next four years as the AML expands its approval list. The company is collaborating with AvFuel to organize the logistics of mass-distributing the new aviation fuel.
It has taken 11 years for GAMI to develop a “functional drop-in unleaded avgas (aviation gas) solution that maintains or improves engine performance and, simultaneously, significantly reduces routine maintenance costs imposed by the use of leaded avgas.” Technical and economical issues added complex challenges to the development of high octane aviation gas.
Officials told General Aviation News that the number one challenge was developing a single high-octane aviation fuel that is compatible with all existing aviation fuel when the different fuels are “co-mingled” in the fuel tanks of the aircraft. “G100UL avgas can be mixed with 100LL in any proportion, and is compatible with the existing fuel infrastructure without modification, enabling its immediate adoption into the marketplace and seamless transition from 100LL.”
GAMI officials also told the News that “In addition, G100UL avgas can be produced both by current fuel producers in the industry or within the specialty chemical processing industry, helping to maintain a competitive cost structure and widespread availability using the existing avgas distribution infrastructure.”
This is an exciting development for the future of aviation fuel. Stay tuned for updates on the expansion of the AML-STC as more testing is completed and additional information is released.
