A South African company, Adept Airmotive, has developed a general aviation engine that is able to power a light aircraft with a range of environment-friendly alternative fuels, such as biofuels and liquid petroleum gas. According to a report at Creamer Media’s Engineering News Online, the Adept 320T engine, which powered a South African-designed, all-composite SA Ravin 500 light aircraft, in May, can also run on normal unleaded fuel, with an octane rating as low as 85, and current low-lead standard aviation fuel. Read the full report here.
About Janice Wood
Janice Wood is editor of General Aviation News.
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I met the Adept folks in Oshkosh and they have an interesting powerplant. Hope they are successful. Readers are reminded that the engines of nearly 80% of all existing aircraft and essentially 100% of all new LSAs can already run on an “alternative” fuel – 91 octane (Premium) unleaded, ethanol-free gasoline, aka Mogas. You’ll find it at over 1600 locations through http://www.PURE-GAS.org. It is far less expensive than 100LL and contains 3%-5% more BTUs/gallon than 100LL. As long as we power our cars using gasoline, we’re assured of a supply of Mogas. The same can not be said for 100LL, produced in miniscule volumes by comparison and dependent on one last producer of TEL, the lead additive it uses.