Options for Reducing Lead Emissions from Piston-Engine Aircraft (2021) / Chapter Skim
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2 Background on the Piston-Engine Aircraft Fleet and Airports
2 Background on the Piston-Engine Aircraft Fleet and Airports
Pages 29-42
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From page 29... ...
On one end of the spectrum are heavily used state-, county-, or municipally-owned airports that accommodate both turbine and piston-engine aircraft, often with intensive operations such as pilot training and business aviation. On the other end are airfields that may be privately owned and consist of grass, water, and sand landing strips that may have highly specialized and seasonal applications such as crop spraying, fire protection, and sightseeing and sport flying.
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From page 30... ...
U.S. PISTON-ENGINE FLEET As noted above, the active GA fleet includes about 144,000 piston-engine aircraft with type certifications, and a further 27,000 experimental aircraft, a large portion of which are amateur built but also include the country's more than 2,000 show and vintage airplanes (e.g., warbirds)
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From page 31... ...
Active Type-Certified Piston-Engine Aircraft Fleet Size and Hours Flown, 2019 Percent Percent of Total Average Number of Total Hours Flown Fleet Hours Hours Flown Aircraft Type of Aircraft Fleet During 1 Year Flown per Year Single-engine, 128,926 89 12,700,000 84 93 fixed-wing Multi-engine 12,470 9 1,731,000 12 139 fixed-wing, Rotary-wing 3,082 2 628,000 4 204 Total 144,478 15,059,000 104a NOTE: The table does not include approximately 27,000 experimental aircraft, most of which are likely to have gasoline engines. a Based on total number of aircraft and total hours flown during 1 year.
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From page 32... ...
For reasons explained below, because the FAA survey data are aggregated nationally, they can mask considerable geographic variation in how often and for what purposes piston-engine aircraft are flown, particularly in remote and rural communities lacking good roads, commercial airline service, and other means of access. For-Hire Transportation (Air Taxi)
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From page 33... ...
TABLE 2-2 Uses of the U.S. Piston-Engine Aircraft Fleet, 2019 Percent of Total Hours Flown by Purpose Aerial Number of Total Hours For-Hire Business Personal and Pilot Observation and Aircraft Flown Transport Transport Recreation Training Agriculture Other Single-engine, 128,926 12,700,000 1.6 7.4 42.7 39.8 3.4 5.1 fixed-wing Multi-engine, 12,470 1,731,000 10.1 15.4 24.1 42.4 2.8 5.3 fixed-wing Rotary-wing 3,082 628,000 2.2 2.5 9.2 50.0 18.3 18.2 Total 144,478 15,059,000 2.6 8.1 39.2 40.5 4.0 5.6 NOTE: The table does not include uses of approximately 27,000 experimental aircraft.
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From page 34... ...
Public purposes include search and rescue, aerial firefighting, police aviation, traffic reporting, and emergency medical airlifts (FAA, 2020a)
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From page 35... ...
The primary airports account for nearly all scheduled airline enplanements and freight loadings and serve as bases for nearly all of the commercial passenger and cargo airline fleet. The 30 busiest primary airports, referred to as large hubs, house few piston-engine or other GA aircraft, but there are some exceptions such as Honolulu (HON)
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From page 36... ...
Geographic Variability in GA Uses and Airports The national-level data presented above do not convey the geographic variability that exists in GA aircraft uses and airports. The national data can be particularly misleading when considering GA's role in vast, sparsely populated states such as Montana, Nevada, and other western states, but especially Alaska, whose communities are scattered across more than 580,000 square miles of land and on islands whose inhabitants have no or limited access to roads, airline service, or other long-distance transport modes.
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From page 37... ...
It is reasonable to assume that the other airside facilities at these small airports are also limited, including traffic control and aircraft maintenance and fueling services. Fueling Facilities and Operations The variability among airports in fueling services is an important consideration for this study because one option for reducing lead from avgas is to ensure that both unleaded and leaded avgas grades are available for pilots
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From page 38... ...
According to data from the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) , the average installation cost of a 5,000 gallon fuel storage tank is $110,000 while the cost of a 10,000 gallon tank is $150,000.1 Thus, the added cost of having to invest in two smaller tanks (one for leaded avgas and another for unleaded avgas)
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From page 39... ...
Typically, the smallest, most basic aircraft are used for personal and recreational flying, while another important purpose is pilot flight training. Aerial observation, medical airlift, and business transport are examples of important GA functions across the country, while some functions, such as crop dusting, aerial firefighting, search and rescue, and air taxi service, have particular significance to communities in rural and remote locations (Finding 2.2)
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From page 40... ...
The disproportionately large portion of avgas consumed by the working segment of the fleet has implications on the extent to which the supply of an unleaded avgas can impact total lead emissions, especially if that supply cannot be used by this segment. The findings are also important for assessing the potential for making changes in airport layouts as a lead mitigation strategy or for making unleaded avgas widely available for use by portions of the piston-engine fleet, which operates across thousands of airports, including many with limited capacity to invest in new fueling infrastructure or airport modifications.
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From page 41... ...
2019. Airport Man agement Guide for Providing Aircraft Fueling Services.
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