Ongoing Research into High Octane Unleaded Avgas

This paper addresses on going research that is being conducted by the FAA Technical Center on an unleaded replacement for 100LL aviation gasoline. Topics include preliminary results from performance studies, a survey of commonly found materials in aircraft fuel systems, lab tests which evaluated the effectiveness of several octane enhancers, engine oil analyses, and preliminary results from water contamination and fuel aging studies.

The paper also discusses long term plans including: detonation surveys, flight tests, and octane rating of typical aircraft engines.