Aviation fuel is a specialized type of petroleum-based fuel used to power aircraft. It is generally of a higher quality than fuels used in less critical applications, such as heating or road transport, and often contains additives to reduce the risk of icing or explosion due to high temperatures, among other properties.
Most aviation fuels available for aircraft are kinds of petroleum spirit used in engines with spark plugs (i.e. piston and Wankel rotary engines), or fuel for jet turbine engines, which is also used in diesel aircraft engines. Alcohol, alcohol mixtures and other alternative fuels may be used experimentally, but alcohol is not permitted in any certified aviation fuel specification. In Brazil, the Embraer Ipanema EMB-202A is a version of the Ipanema agricultural aircraft with an engine converted to Ethanol.
The Convention on International Civil Aviation (ICAO), which came into effect in 1947, exempted air fuels from tax. Australia and the USA oppose a worldwide levy on aviation fuel, but a number of other countries have expressed interest.
Read more about Aviation Fuel: ASTM, Production of Aviation Fuel, Avgas, Jet Fuel, In Use, Energy Content, Chemical Composition, Safety Precautions
Famous quotes containing the word fuel:
“It is now many years that men have resorted to the forest for fuel and the materials of the arts: the New Englander and the New Hollander, the Parisian and the Celt, the farmer and Robin Hood, Goody Blake and Harry Gill; in most parts of the world, the prince and the peasant, the scholar and the savage, equally require still a few sticks from the forest to warm them and cook their food. Neither could I do without them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)