To visit Lycoming and Continental, as we did last month, is to step into a disconnected world that almost qualifies as an alternate reality. And no, were not resurrecting the hackneyed complaint that the engine companies are out of touch with the wants and needs of their customers. Its the other way around. While the world of piston GA drifts along in business-as-usual mode, the engine makers see a looming cliff defined by the extinction of 100LL and no one is tapping the brakes. Panic may be too strong, but if no universal fuel replacement emerges two years from now, it may be too mild. Well frame it this way: Buyers, owners, user groups and the alphabets may see the elimination of 100LL as being at least five to seven years distant and can thus pencil the problem into tomorrows to-do list. But the engine makers will shoulder the technical burden of building engines to run on unleaded fuel. They live in a world of lukewarm, sometimes vaporous demand, of a legacy fleet thats all but inextricably wrapped around a 100-octane fuel requirement and of certification projects that consume months and years and that require limited capital to be doled out in squirts, not torrents. High-dollar crash projects arent on the agenda. That means while the world continues to snooze, Lycoming and Continental are sensing theyre running late to the office. Because neither company knows what will replace leaded avgas, designing for the future requires a lot of what-if development that may become tomorrows never-was skunk works curiosities. Whos got the money for that? Lycoming and Continental have divergent approaches to this conundrum. Continental is pushing for a quick-start 94-octane unleaded solution and just announced a diesel development project. Lycoming is agnostic on the diesel idea, is moving aggressively forward with a state-of-the-art electronic engine but is adamant about one thing: Any replacement of 100LL avgas needs to have a minimum of 100 octane. It thinks the industry should get serious about considering 100-octane 
Engines of Change: Fuels Driving (Or Not)
To visit Lycoming and Continental, as we did last month, is to step into a disconnected world that almost qualifies as an alternate reality. And no, were not resurrecting the hackneyed complaint that the engine companies are out of touch with the wants and needs of their customers. Its the other way around. While the world of piston GA drifts along in business-as-usual mode, the engine makers see a looming cliff defined by the extinction of 100LL and no one is tapping the brakes. Panic may be too strong, but if no universal fuel replacement emerges two years from now, it may be too mild.