Swift Fuels, which produces UL94 avgas, announced in early March 2024 that all shipments of its 94 octane, unleaded aviation gasoline will be dyed purple.
Since its first delivery of UL94 in April 2015, the avgas has had a clear transparent color, also known as “water white.”
The color change, the result of more than four years of planning by ASTM International, is designed to increase avgas refueling safety in the marketplace by helping differentiate various fuel grades, as well as water, from one another, according to Swift Fuels officials.
The new purple UL94 fuel is identical to the prior UL94 fuel in terms of quality and engine performance, company officials added.
Why The Change?
In 2018, the ASTM International Fuels, Markings and Dyes task force, which is co-led by BP and Swift Fuels, began a wholesale reassessment of the aviation fuels used across the globe to identify the fuel colors that were assigned but no longer in active use. This resulted in a “deselection” of colors, making these colors available for use in aviation gasolines, company officials explain.
This ASTM task force issued approval for changing the color of UL94 to purple in 2023. The new color specification for UL94 was designated to be implemented anytime between Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2024.
“Swift Fuels elected to begin the implementation across the marketplace at this time to help differentiate UL94 from other fuels used by piston aircraft and to generally improve the effectiveness of pilots identifying fuel grades and separating condensation (water) from aircraft fuel prior to each flight,” company officials said.
For more information: SwiftFuels.com
Our 912iS Rotax powered plane has used UL94 at our home airport (KSQL) for over 600 hours of flying with perfect results.
Who among the thinking even wants this crap in their airplane? I don’t.
Reminds me of my part-time job during college in the 1960s pumping gas at Harvey Young Airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to earn money so I could rent a Piper Cub for $6 an hour (wet!). As I recall, the various octanes and associated color dyes I had to learn were: 73, clear; 80/87, red; 91/96, blue; 100/130, green; 108/135, brown; and 115/145, purple. When I started that job in 1963, our 80/87 sold for 37.9 cents a gallon…
Ahh yes! An academy award nominee fuel for “The Color Purple”.
Roughly 1 in 12 people are color blind including myself. Red green color blindness is the most common type. People with red green color blindness don’t see the red tint in purple and therefore it looks blue. Not a huge problem. but UL94 and 100LL will look the same.
Both my brother and I are red-green color deficient. Blue and purple look the same to us. Aside from possible cost difference, I expect it will be irrelevant for our respective J-3s or my RV-4. His Maule might though.