New aircraft fuel system
New aircraft fuel system
Keywords Aircraft,Environmentally friendly, Ethanol, Fuel
Professors at West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, USA, are using ethanol distilled from corn squeezings as a less polluting, renewable alternative to aviation gas in a Cessna 150.
The WVU-owned Cessna is a dual-fuel aircraft, carrying conventional aviation fuel in its right-wing fuel tank and ethanol in its left-wing tank. Fuel-system designer John Loth, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, mounted a fuel injector next to the existing carburretor to provide the extra fuel needed when the pilot switches operation from aviation gas to ethanol. When the plane is operated on aviation gas, only the carburettor is used.
Loth's fuel system allows the pilot to switch fuels in flight by turning the fuel-selector valve from one tank to the other, then activate the fuel-pump switch one minute later. This contrasts with other ethanol-fuelled aircraft that use either a carburretor or a fuel injector. Such planes cannot safely switch fuel type in flight because the pilot must manually adjust the fuel/air mixture control during fuel changeover,which is difficult to do without engine detonation. The Cessna 1.50 is used regularly in classes to provide aerospace engineering students at the university with an introductory flight.
