Lycoming Engine general manager Michael Kraft continued to speak on the 100LL fuel replacement issue by urging pilots and owners to do a little speaking themselves: to their elected representatives and especially to the alphabets -- AOPA, EAA and NBAA. As he has in past weeks, Kraft continued an aggressive narrative on the avgas replacement effort at a forum at EAA AirVenture. Kraft told the audience that anything less than a 100-octane replacement or at least the equivalent performance will be at minimum a $2 billion mistake and "it doesn't take more than one line on the back of an envelope to figure that out." Kraft said it's time to "stop loving the problem" and develop a clear, sure-footed approach to finding a replacement fuel.
Kraft outlined Lycoming's 10-point action plan, the two most important of which were putting pressure on the consensus-based ASTM International to address fuel approvals more quickly and for owners to insist that owner groups and alphabets get more aggressive in removing barriers to new fuel development. Further, the industry shouldn't waste its time trying to fight EPA efforts that will eventually regulate lead out of existence as an octane additive. In a sentiment we've heard several times here at AirVenture, Kraft said the problem is not technical, but political and procedural.
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