On-Board Equipment for the Evaluation of Aviation Gasolines Abnormal Combustion Characteristics

The development of unleaded high octane aviation gasolines is being pursued in a cooperative effort by fuel producers, user organizations, regulatory agencies, and The General Aviation industry. The evaluation of abnormal combustion characteristics of new unleaded candidate fuels under actual flight conditions, pose unique instrumentation and equipment requirements. On-board detonation indication and test fuels blender systems have been developed, to evaluate the abnormal combustion behavior of unleaded candidate fuels against reference fuels of known characteristics. These systems have proven capable of delivering precise and reproducible results during validation tests performed on the ground and in flight under significant time and space limitations.