Next Series of ASTM D7547 UL 91 Unleaded Avgas Approval Actions Announced by Lycoming
Williamsport, PA – July 18th, 2012 – Lycoming Engines, a division of Avco Corporation, released Service Instruction SI-1070R on April 16th, 2012, which approved a wide variety of engines for use with ASTM D7547 UL 91 unleaded avgas. European Aviation Safety Administration
(EASA) Safety Information Bulletin (SIB) 2011-01 provided aircraft-level approval on the basis of engine approval.
Today Lycoming announced that Service Instruction SI-1070S will be released in the fall of 2012, adding 20 engines to the list of models approved for use on UL 91 unleaded avgas and bringing the total number approved to 55.
Models to be approved include the large installed base of (I)O-320-B, D; LIO-320-B; O-540-A, D, E, F, G, H, J; and IO-540-C, D, N, T, V, W, AF, AB engine models. The EASA SIB will allow UL 91 use on European Union based aircraft such as the Piper Warrior and Archer; Cessna 152, 172 Skyhawk and 182 Skylane; Robinson R22 and R44- Raven I; Diamond DA40 and DA42-L360; and many other models.
“Our continued efforts to expand our approvals of UL 91 support the increased deployment by European fuel producers that has occurred since our announcement earlier this year. We are responding to progressively wider availability of unleaded aviation-grade fuel supplies for light aircraft,” says Michael Kraft, Lycoming senior vice president and general manager. “It’s a significant and positive development that European unleaded avgas producers and EASA are making UL 91 available and easily usable to consumers. UL 91 provides a wellconditioned aviation suitable solution for engines originally designed for lower-octane leaded aviation and automotive fuels.”
UL 91 originally entered into distribution in Europe largely to serve engines approved to operate on automotive specification fuels. EASA Safety Information Bulletin 2011-01R1 and now R2 provided aircraftlevel approval on the basis of engine approval.
In the United States, UL 91 will require an additional approval by the airframe manufacturer to operate aircraft using that fuel. There are no known distributors of UL 91 in the United States at this time.
According to TOTAL, UL 91 is offered at 17 airfields in the UK, nine airfields in France and six in Switzerland. The fuel is also available at airfields in Germany and Belgium. Plans are currently in place to offer fuel at additional locations throughout Europe.
“Once again, we want to emphasize that UL 91 is not a replacement for 100LL, but it is a very robust aviation-suitable alternative to automotive gasoline that should result in overall lower operating costs for consumers,” Kraft says. “Lycoming remains vigorously supportive of a
long-term unleaded 100LL replacement fuel, which could uniformly serve the entire installed base. Our expansion of UL 91 approvals continues to represent an excellent opportunity to prime the pump for a ‘UL 100’ future.”
About Lycoming
Lycoming Engines specializes in engineering, manufacture, service and support of piston aircraft engines. Based in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming piston engines power more than half of the world's general aviation fleet - both rotarywing and fixed-wing. Lycoming Engines is a division of Avco Corporation. More information is available at www.lycoming.com
