CONTINENTAL'S VIEW ON GENERAL AVIATION'S FUTURE SUSTAINABILITY

“The European Union has committed to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030. Starting in 2025, the aviation fuel made available to EU airports should contain 2% Sustainable Aviation Fuel SAF), increasing to 5% by 2030, 32% by 2040 and 63% by 2050. That means we need to give our customers an opportunity to fly carbon free or at least carbon neutral.” So says Dr David Dorner, Vice President of Global Research and Development Continental Aerospace Technologies. Since Continental already has a wide range of diesel piston engines, if someone has a Jet-A powered aircraft they can already use the Sustainable Aviation Fuels, the SAFs currently available. For Avgas engines, it is a little more difficult, given the current limited supply of fuel sources. But we are working to validate and verify more SAFs and unleaded fuel sources so that our customers have more choices.”

African Pilot spoke with Dr Dörner to find out more about Continental's plans for its engines, outlook for its customers, and the 'sustainability question.'

Q) How has Continental worked to prepare its engines for a more sustainable future?

A) As early as 2013 we were already working on fuel innovation and testing, looking at ways of improving the components of our engines, including the cylinders, to try to be more robust, more adaptable. This is also the focus of our engineering teams and R&D, to look at how the new SAF fuels as well as unleaded or low-lead will run on our engines.

Q) Will customers have to convert their engines to run on these SAFs?