Swift Fuels CEO Chris d’Acosta told an AirVenture forum on Monday that about 35,000 gallons of its 100R unleaded avgas has been burned so far, mostly in a training fleet of Cessna 172 R and S models, and there have been no mechanical or materials compatibility issues. Swift got an STC for 100R that covered only those two models of Cessna and cut a deal with a flight school in California to supply its fuel. The fuel didn’t just perform well, it also cut the level of engine metals in the oil by a large margin and the flight school owner told the crowd, by phone link, that he’s looking forward to fueling the rest of his fleet with 100R.
d’Acosta said that to that end an ASTM specification for 100R is imminent and an expanded approved model list is on the way and it will soon be able to supply 75% of the piston fleet with high octane unleaded fuel. The company’s 94UL, which has been available for about 10 years, will be replaced with the 100R when it’s approved. About 75% of engines can use 94UL so the plan is to simply substitute the higher octane fuel in the “94UL footprint” once those approvals are in. He told the audience the new approvals will cover about 1100 different piston engines and 1500 airframes.
The remaining 25% are more complicated. About 60% of that slice of the pie chart are what he calls “the 550s,” six-cylinder engines in singles and light twins that fill the gap between the engines that are quite happy on 94 UL and the ultra-high-performance boosted sixes that will be the toughest to fuel with unleaded. Testing will begin later this year on a Continental 550 and d’Acosta said it will take about 18 months.
I do remember a forum I attended in 1999 at the Sun an Fun fly in. Swift reps. said they should have a drop in replacement in about two years. I would wonder about their credibility considering their past record.
Just like when fore flight said that they were going to look into us android users…
ASTM does not make a specification for a specific brand of fuel, it makes a standard for fuels to be evaluated against.
Verify what Swift actually said.
(Both Swift and GAMI have said the ASTM standard needs revision. GAMI has detailed several aspects that should be changed, and suggested additions.
Clearly stated on GAMI’s web site, I don’t remember what Swift has said (it isn’t always clear but I presume votes on changes are recorded in minutes of meeting0.
So after all this research and development, Swift can only say that they have produced a “100 octane” fuel capable of being used in aircraft that can already accept 94 octane? And they haven’t started testing on engines that actually require “real” 100 octane fuel? Wow…that is seriously unimpressive.
MikeFive:
Oh! so not competitive with G100UL?
Say Russ, this thread is an example of one that does not name who a Reply is to.
Keith Sketchley:
Swift said it, a sloppy operation: Swift 100R — SwiftFuels.
And AOPA makes a misleading statement: Swift Fuels’ 100-octane unleaded aviation fuel granted first STC - AOPA, ASTM does not ‘certify’ a fuel.
They never told me that. In fact, one of the developers straight up told me they would never bother porting to android. It was at that point that I wrote them off and settled on Garmin Pilot.
And also that they will stop producing the probaby-cheaper 94UL once their 100R is “approved”.
Huge market as Samsung uses Android.
Some people think Apple is more rigorous thus safer to deal with - my experience with a recent iPhone is it flips around with updates. And in last two years has had problems with security of its software (iOS for phones, a different OS for computers, I forget which iPads use).
To keep this fuel-related… I guess FF figured Android might be 75% of devices but only 25% of the market, like the oft-repeated “75% of 100LL sales are from 25% of the fleet that need 100+ octane fuel”.
Looks like the forum software is acting up.
This SWIFT Fuels - not Apple or Android.
When they first came on the scene over 15 years ago, i asked them that question. And he indeed told me that they were looking into it. I now use i fly efb. Never had an issue, and I’m quite happy with them.)
Not comparable.
Questions are how many of each OS are used in aviation, iPads were popular at one time (I read that they now use a separate ‘iPadOS’ ).
And as I said developer’s view of quality of OS and updates (right or wrong).
I remember when Avidyne said they were coming out with a new GPS nav/com to compete against Garmin and were offering huge discounts for “early adapters.” I was ridiculed, peppered with less than polite names in public and told I just lost my $10,000.00 by purchasing “vapor ware”. My reward has been a bullet-proof, infinitely upgradeable IFD540 that still outperforms the Garmin in ease of use and functionality. Swift is likely in that early stage as well, so while they may be still in testing and development, I’d wager it’s getting close to “5 o’clock” on their release cycle. Swift is probably looking to avoid the compatibility issues and resulting media frenzy that have surrounded G1000 UL since its release.
Are you viewing it on https://forum.avweb.com/? 'Cuz it does show the reply chain.
Meanwhile, G100UL has STC availability for most of those planes that 100R can’t fuel.
Why is this newsworthy?
I am viewing it from the email links.
I know display of who I reply to varies with the thread. You cannot tell with only limited experience.
I believe the email links take you to the story in
https://avweb.com/, which do NOT track replies. Look for theContinue discussion - Visit the forum linkat the top of the comments. This will take you to the actual forum athttps://FORUM.avweb.com/.Sigh.
You are wrong about when information appears.
You have it wrong.
Links in email take one to the article which has the Continue Discussion link to Reply.
Which is hosted on //avweb.com…
Which links to //forum.avweb.com.
Kinda exactly what I said.