Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE)

The FAA and partners in the aviation community launched the EAGLE initiative as the result of a Congressionally mandated report from the National Academies. The EAGLE team’s goal is to eliminate leaded aviation fuels in piston-engine aircraft safely by the end of 2030.

To achieve the lead-free goal, EAGLE will: ​

1. Identify at least one unleaded fuel acceptable for safe General Aviation fleet use.
2. Minimize the safety and technical impacts associated with high-performance engines using unleaded fuels.
3. Facilitate the increased production, distribution and greater use of unleaded replacement fuels.
4. Ensure that 100 low-lead fuel is available during the transition to unleaded fuel.
5. Establish policies that support airport infrastructure funding for unleaded fuel.
6. Endorse plans that reduce or eliminate reliance upon leaded aviation fuels.

How We Will Get There

Recent Progress 

• FAA has two pathways available to obtain FAA authorization for the use of a new unleaded fuel. 
  • FAA fleet authorization process established by Congress and in conjunction with the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI)
  • Traditional FAA aircraft type certification / supplemental type certification (STC) process
• FAA and EAGLE have developed a chart to show various attributes of both pathways.
• Under the STC process, the FAA issued an expanded FAA approved model list STC in September 2022 to GAMI for a 100 Octane unleaded fuel (G100UL) for general aviation aircraft. FAA is also working with Swift Fuels on an STC for a limited number of engines/aircraft to operate on a high-octane unleaded fuel (100R) later this year (2023).
• The FAA issued a Fleet Authorization Policy Statement in March 2023. The Policy Statement describes the general process to obtain a fleet authorization of a qualified unleaded fuel candidate. The intent of the statement is to authorize qualified candidate unleaded fuels for safe use in applicable aircraft and engines for the U.S. piston-engine general aviation fleet. As a first step in testing and implementing the fleet authorization process and facilitating the transition to unleaded fuels, the FAA plans to issue a fleet authorization for use of the UL 94 / UL 91 unleaded fuels later this year. The FAA anticipates that approximately 68% of the general aviation fleet will be eligible to use UL 94 / UL 91 fuels.  
• Under the Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative (PAFI), the FAA is working with two teams from Afton Chemical/Phillips 66 and LyondellBasell/VP Racing to test and evaluate their high-octane unleaded candidate fuel solutions The FAA expects to issue fleet authorizations for the higher-octane fuels after successful completion of PAFI full scale testing of the fuel candidates. 
• To help provide guidance to flight schools, FAA and EAGLE have also developed a guidance document to help flight schools with their transition to the lead free future. 
• The Airport Cooperative Research Program within the Transportation Research Board is developing a project to collect data and create best practices focused on the safe transition to unleaded fuels for the country's fleet of 220,000 piston aircraft. The project kicked-off in 2023 and will result in a guidebook for airports. 
• EAGLE White Paper on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Endangerment Finding on Lead Emissions Decision 
• EAGLE Stakeholder Q&A on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Endangerment Finding on Lead Emissions Decision