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“FAA-approved, 100 octane unleaded avgas has been ready to produce at refineries since March.  Our team at the Foundation will be working with government agencies, airport managers, FBO’s and aviation fuel distributors to help get everyone together to push this forward,” stated Foundation President Scott Burgess. “And pooling the orders into one aggregate order commitment, this will help keep the costs down for everyone.”

Fueling this initiative is the FAA-certified and commercially available 100 octane unleaded avgas: G100 UL. The unleaded avgas was developed by General Aviation Modifications, Inc. (GAMI).  GAMI also owns numerous FAA STC’s (supplementary type certificates) for the G100UL fuel for use in mostly all general aviation aircraft.

George Braly, GAMI co-founder, stated: “We are pleased to be working with the Eco-Aviation Foundation and its partners in helping facilitate distribution of G100UL avgas to California airports as soon as possible.”

Foundation Vice President Edward Story continued, “Our team is working to get unleaded avgas available at California airports in as short a time as possible.  An unleaded avgas solution is needed now, especially one that can be used fleetwide in general aviation.”        

Scott Burgess sums it up: “Airports have been increasingly under pressure to eliminate the use of leaded aviation fuel.  GAMI’s G100UL is a solution that’s available now, and it’s time for us to “Fly Unleaded!” The Foundation will support any meaningful opportunity to move the needle to clean and quiet aviation.”  

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“Climbing. Fast.” A dozen leaders from across the industry gathered to launch a new initiative called “Climbing. Fast.,” affirming the entire sector’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said, “At NBAA-BACE we made clear: business aviation is on a mission to net zero – and we are Climbing. Fast.”

Newsmakers Panel: Hybrid electric aircraft coming soon. Industry visionaries leading the development of hybrid and electric aircraft propulsion joined the FAA’s head of aviation safety for a panel on opening day. Topics included fuel systems, regulation and markets.

Notable quotes: Huge growth opportunity: “While urban air mobility is certainly one application for electric aircraft, there’s a much bigger market in regional air mobility or longer-range flights of up to a few hundred miles,” said Marc Ausman, chief product officer at Electra, a company developing a hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing aircraft.

That said, challenges remain. AAM operations must demonstrate the ability to safely interact with other aircraft. Infrastructure is another key focus area for the industry, including concerns about whether already-stressed regional power grids will be able to support large-scale AAM operations.

Dan Elwell, an advisory board member for Joby, pointed to legislation like SB 100 in California, which is intended to scale up renewable energy production to offset the gap. “I don’t view infrastructure as a big hurdle for us,” he added. “There are thousands of heliports around the U.S., and we’re also going to be able to use large parking lots. We should be able to get back to rooftop operations as long as we have a charging capability.”

Many industry stakeholders aim to begin small-scale commercial AAM operations by 2025, and Volocopter hopes to fly even sooner, during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

To make that happen, FAA Air Traffic Organization COO Tim Arel noted that AAM must not only safely operate among other aircraft, but also such new entities as commercial space providers.

“Our approach is [to provide] equitable access to the airspace. As all that comes together, our concern is how everyone will play together,” he said. “So, getting to scale is going to be our biggest challenge in our airspace.”

Arel pointed to the agency’s “Innovate28” initiative as a practical roadmap toward that goal.

“There are a lot of incremental tests and coordination efforts that we’re going to do around the country, all aimed toward a fully integrated system of all players in the LA basin by [the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in] 2028,” he said.

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